THE 
MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


PORTRAIT    OF    BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN,    ABOUT    1726. 
Original  in  Harvard  Memorial  Hall,  Cambridge,  Mass. 


THE 
MANY-SIDED  FRANKLIN 


BY 


PAUL  LEICESTER  FORD 

AUTHOR   OF    "JANICE    MEREDITH,"    "THE    HONORABLE    PETER 

STIRLING,"    "THE    STORY  OF   AN    UNTOLD   LOVE," 

AND   "THE   TRUE   GEORGE   WASHINGTON  " 


NEW  YORK 

Century  Co, 

1899 


Copyright,  1898,  1899,  by 
THE  CENTURY  Co. 


THE  DE  VINNE  PRESS. 


TO 

THE  AMERICAN    PHILOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY, 

FOUNDED    BY    FRANKLIN, 

AND    NOW    THE    DEPOSITORY    OF    THE    MOST    VALUABLE 
PART    OF    HIS    MANUSCRIPTS, 

AS    AN    EXPRESSION    OF    THE    PERSONAL    OBLIGATION    OF 
THE    AUTHOR, 

THIS    BOOK    IS    DEDICATED. 


CONTENTS 

PA(,E 

I.  FAMILY  RELATIONS    .....„! 

II.  PHYSIQUE:    THEORIES  AND  APPETITES      .         .41 

III.  EDUCATION 86 

IV.  RELIGION 131 

V.  PRINTER  AND  PUBLISHER  .         .         .         .         -177 

VI.  WRITER  AND  JOURNALIST  .....  220 

VII.  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  FAIR  SEX       .         .         .  263 

VIII.  JACK  OF  ALL  TRADES         .....  308 

IX.  THE  SCIENTIST  .         .         .         .         .         .         .  351 

X.  THE  HUMORIST 388 

XL  POLITICIAN  AND  DIPLOMATIST  .         .         .         .418 

XII.  SOCIAL  LIFE       .......  467 

INDEX          .         .  .  .511 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


PORTRAIT   OF  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN,  ABOUT  1726.  .  .Frontispiece 
Original  in   Harvard   Memorial  Hall,  Cambridge,    Massachusetts.     Drawn  by 
W.  B.  Closson,  from  original  painting. 

PAGE 

FACSIMILE    OF   ENTRY   OF    FRANKLIN'S    BIRTH   IN    BOS- 
TON  TOWN    RECORDS i 

BOOK-PLATE   OF   JOHN    FRANKLIN 2 

Original  in  the  possession  of  C.  R.  Lichtenstein,  Boston. 

ANN    FRANKLIN'S   GRAVESTONE    5 

Granary  Burying-Ground,  Boston.     Drawn  by  C.  A.  Vanderhoof. 

FRANKLIN'S   MONUMENT   TO    HIS   PARENTS 7 

Granary  Burying-Ground,  Boston.     Drawn  by  C.  A.  Vanderhoof. 

LETTER    OF   MARY    FRANKLIN 10 

In  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

FAMILY  ACCOUNT   IN   FRANKLIN'S   WRITING 15 

In  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

THE    WIDOW    READ'S    ADVERTISEMENT 19 

Franklin's  mother-in-law. 

GOVERNOR  WILLIAM    FRANKLIN,    BY   FLAXMAN 22 

From  a  medallion  in  possession  of  Sir  J.  Lumsden  Propert. 

MEMORIAL   TABLET   TO    MRS.   WILLIAM    FRANKLIN 24 

In  the  chancel  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  New  York.     Drawn  by  C.  A.  Vanderhoof. 

WILLIAM   TEMPLE    FRANKLIN 27 

From  a  medallion  by  Flaxman.     In  the  collection  of  Sir  J.  Lumsden  Propert. 

ADVERTISEMENT   REGARDING  THE  DEATH  OF  FRANCIS 

FOLGER   FRANKLIN    FROM   SMALLPOX     29 

From  Franklin's  "  Pennsylvania  Gazette." 

FRANCIS   FOLGER   FRANKLIN 30 

Younger  son  of  Benjamin  Franklin.     Drawn  by  George  F.  Arata,  after  original 
portrait  in  possession  of  Mrs.  E.  D.  Gillespie,  Philadelphia. 

ix 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

RICHARD   BACHE 33 

From  an  original  painting  by  Hoppner,  1790,  in  possession  of  Miss  Constantia 
Albert. 

MRS.    RICHARD    BACHE    (SARAH    FRANKLIN) 37 

Daughter  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  After  the  Hoppner  portrait  painted  in  1792,  in 
possession  of  Mrs.  Duncan  S.  Walker,  Washington,  D.  C. 

GRAVESTONE    OF   FRANCIS    FOLGER   FRANKLIN 39 

In  the  Franklin  burial  plot  in  Christ  Church  Cemetery,  Philadelphia. 

FULL-LENGTH    PORTRAIT    OF    BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN 40 

From  a  copperplate,  after  a  drawing  by  L.  C.  de  Carmontelle.  In  the  collection 
of  Clarence  S.  Bemen,  Philadelphia. 

BIRTHPLACE    OF    FRANKLIN     IN    MILK    STREET,    JANU- 
ARY 6,  1705-6,    O.    S   41 

From  a  lithograph  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York. 

EAST  PROSPECT  OF  THE  CITY  OF  PHILADELPHIA,  1754  (?)     43 
From  a  print  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

FRANKLIN'S     NOTIFICATION     TO     ATTEND      DUBOURG'S 

FUNERAL   45 

From  the  original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

FACSIMILE    OF   THE    TITLE-PAGE    OF    THOMAS   TRYON'S 

BOOK    48 

From  a  copy  in  possession  of  Paul  Leicester  Ford. 

BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN'S   WINE-GLASS 53 

Drawn  by  Harry  Fenn,  after  a  photograph  of  the  original  in  the  Historical  So- 
ciety of  Pennsylvania. 

DRINKING-SONG   IN   FRANKLIN'S   HANDWRITING 56 

In  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

ARCHBISHOP  JOHN    CARROLL 62 

After  portrait  by  Stuart,  in  possession  of  Georgetown  College,  Washington,  D.  C. 

BRITISH     DOCTORS    WITH    WHOM    FRANKLIN    WAS    IN- 
TIMATE       67 

Sir  William  Watson,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  John  Fothergill.  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.,  Sir 
John  Pringle,  M.  D.,  F.  R.  S.  Drawn  by  Kenneth  H.  Miller,  from  old 
pictures. 

FRANKLIN'S     ACCOUNT    OF    THE    PENNSYLVANIA    HOS- 
PITAL         71 

From  the  original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

THE    PENNSYLVANIA    HOSPITAL 73 

From  an  old  copperplate  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

FRIEDR1CH    ANTON    MESMER 74 

From  an  old  French  print. 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

TITLE-PAGE    OF    THE     REPORT    OF    THE    ROYAL     COM- 
MISSION   ON   MESMERISM 75 

From  Franklin's  own  copy  in  the  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society. 

COUNT   ALESSANDRO   DI    CAGLIOSTRO 77 

After  an  old  engraving  by  F.  Bonneville. 

J ACQUES-ETIENNE    MONTGOLFIER 79 

From  an  old  French  print,  after  a  portrait  painted  by  his  daughter. 

MONTGOLFIER'S   FIRST   BALLOON 80 

From  the  "Town  and  Country  Magazine,"  London,  1783. 

JEAN    INGENHOUSZ,  M.  D 82 

From  a  print. 

JOHN   JONES,  M.  D 84 

Drawn  by  Kenneth  H.  Miller,  from  an  old  print. 

FACSIMILE   OF  A   POEM    IN   FRANKLIN'S    HANDWRITING    85 
From  Smith's  "American  Historical  and  Literary  Curiosities." 

MEDAL     GIVEN      BY     THE     BOSTON     PUBLIC     SCHOOLS 

FROM   THE    FRANKLIN    FUND 86 

ADVERTISEMENT   OF   GEORGE    BROWNELL 87 

From  the  "  Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

COTTON    MATHER 89 

After  a  print  by  Henry  Pelham. 

TITLE-PAGE   OF   FIRST   EDITION  OF   COTTON  MATHER'S 

"  ESSAY   UPON   THE   GOOD  " 90 

In  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

LETTER     OF    FRANKLIN'S     UNCLE     BENJAMIN    TO    THE 
FRANKLIN  KIN  IN  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE,  ENGLAND, 

1724 92 

From  the  original  in  the  possession  of  Paul  Leicester  Ford. 

GOVERNOR  WILLIAM    BURNET   OF   NEW   YORK 95 

Drawn  by  Kenneth  H.  Miller,  from  a  print. 

BIRCH'S    VIEW     OF    THE     OLD     LIBRARY    COMPANY    OF 

PHILADELPHIA,  1799 97 

Original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

FRANKLIN'S    MAGIC   SQUARE    OF  SQUARES 98 

From  the  "Gentleman's  Magazine,"  1768. 

FRANKLIN'S   MAGIC    CIRCLE 99 

From  his  manuscript  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

ii*  xi 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

THE    TWO    EARLIEST    ADVERTISEMENTS    CONCERNING 

THE    LIBRARY   COMPANY   OF   PHILADELPHIA 100 

From    Franklin's  "  Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  in    the  Historical    Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 
FRANKLIN'S   ACCOUNT   WITH    THE    LIBRARY   COMPANY 

OF   PHILADELPHIA    103 

From  his  ledger  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

FRANKLIN'S     INSCRIPTION     FOR    A    TABLET     FOR    THE 

LIBRARY  COMPANY  OF   PHILADELPHIA 104 

Original  in  the  Department  of  State,  Washington. 

THE  INSCRIPTION  FOR  THE  LIBRARY  COMPANY  ACTU- 
ALLY ADOPTED  BY  THE  TRUSTEES  105 

From  the  tablet  in  wall  of  library. 

TITLE-PAGE    OF     FRANKLIN'S     "PROPOSALS     RELATING 

TO   THE   EDUCATION   OF  YOUTH" 107 

In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

THE    REVEREND   WILLIAM    SMITH no 

After  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  John  H.  Brinton, 
Philadelphia. 

PART  OF  FIRST  PAGE  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE 
PHILADELPHIA  ACADEMY  AS  DRAWN  UP  BY  FRANK- 
LIN AND  FRANCIS,  1749  112 

In  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

THE    PAGE   OF  SIGNATURES   OF   THIS   CONSTITUTION..    113 

THE    PHILADELPHIA   ACADEMY 116 

From  a  pencil-drawing  made  by  Du  Simitiere,  in  the  possession  of  the  Library 
Company  of  Philadelphia. 

SCHOOL   BILL  FOR   FRANKLIN'S   NEPHEW  AND   SON  ....   119 
From  the  original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

FRANKLIN'S  DEGREE  OF  M.  A.  FROM  HARVARD  COL- 
LEGE, 1753 .  121 

Original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

A   LETTER   OF   FRANKLIN'S   IN    FRENCH 124 

In  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

TITLE-PAGE     OF    EMMONS'S     SERMON     ON     FRANKLIN'S 

GIFT   OF   BOOKS 128 

In  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

FRANKLIN'S      LIBRARY     CHAIR,     SHOWING     THE     SEAT 

TURNED    UP    TO    FORM   A    LADDER  130 

In  the  possession  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

xii 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

BAPTISM    RECORD   OF   FRANKLIN 131 

From  records  of  the  Old  South  Church,  Boston. 

OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH,  BOSTON 135 

WILLIAM    WOLLASTON 138 

From  an  engraving  by  Vertue,  after  a  portrait  attributed  to  William  Hogarth. 

TITLE-PAGE  OF  WOLLASTON'S  "  RELIGION  OF  NATURE"  140 
From  the  copy  in  the  possession  of  Paul  Leicester  Ford. 

TITLE-PAGE   OF    FRANKLIN'S    "WICKED   TRACT" 143 

In  the  Congressional  Library. 

TITLE-PAGE     OF     FRANKLIN'S      PRIVATE     DEVOTIONAL 

BOOK 145 

In  the  Department  of  State,  Washington. 

TITLE-PAGE   OF    ONE    OF   FRANKLIN'S    PAMPHLETS    ON 

THE   HEMPHILL   CONTROVERSY 148 

In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

TITLE-PAGE   OF    ONE    OF    FRANKLIN'S    PAMPHLETS    ON 

THE   HEMPHILL   CONTROVERSY 151 

In  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

A    SOUTHEAST     VIEW     OF     CHRIST'S     CHURCH,    PHILA- 
DELPHIA, 1787 153 

From  a  print  in  the  "  Columbian  Magazine." 

REV.    GEORGE   WHITEFIELD 156 

From  an  engraving  by  Trotter  of  a  portrait  by  Russell. 

LORD   LE   DKSPENSER 161 

From  a  print  in  the  possession  of  Paul  Leicester  Ford. 

TITLE-PAGE     OF     LE     DESPENSER'S     AND     FRANKLIN'S 

ABRIDGMENT   OF   THE   PRAYER-BOOK 163 

From  the  copy  in  the  Congressional  Library. 

THOMAS    PAINE 165 

Engraved  by  W.  Sharp,  after  a  portrait  by  Romney.     From  a  print  in  the  pos- 
session of  E.  G.  Kennedy. 

THE   PAGES   OF  FRANKLIN'S   MOTION    FOR   PRAYERS   IN 

THE   FEDERAL   CONVENTION 168,169 

In  the  Department  of  State,  Washington. 

FIRST  PAGE  OF  FRANKLIN'S  PRIVATE  DEVOTIONAL  BOOK  172 
In  the  Department  of  State,  Washington. 

OLD  QUAKER  MEETING-HOUSE,  PHILADELPHIA  (WHERE 

FRANKLIN    WENT    TO    SLEEP) 176 

Southwest  corner  of  Second  and  Market  streets.     Court-house  in  the  middle  of 
the  street.     Drawn  by  George  A.  Williams,  after  an  old  lithograph. 

xiii 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

BILL    FOR    "PENNSYLVANIA    GAZETTE"    IN    FRANKLIN'S 

HANDWRITING 177 

Original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

FIRST    ISSUE    PUBLISHED    BY    BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN    OF 

"THE   NEW  ENGLAND   COURANT  " 181,  182 

From  the  original  in  the  British  Museum. 

GOVERNOR   KEITH 186 

From  the  portrait  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

PRESS  AT  WHICH  FRANKLIN  WORKED  IN  WATTS'S  PRINT- 
ING-OFFICE, LONDON,  1725 189 

It  is  owned  by  Mrs.  Felicia  M.  Tucker  of  New  York,  and  is  in  the  custody  of 
the  Smithsonian  Institution,  Washington. 

DISSOLUTION    OF    THE    FIRM    OF   B.    FRANKLIN   AND    H. 

MEREDITH 191 

From  the  original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

TITLE-PAGE   OF   FIRST   ISSUE  OF   FRANKLIN'S    PRESS....   194 
In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

FRANKLIN'S  FIRST  ISSUE  OF  "  PENNSYLVANIA  GAZETTE  "  198 
From  the  original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

ADVERTISEMENT   OF   THE    FIRST   FOREIGN  NEWSPAPER 

PUBLISHED   IN   THE    UNITED  STATES 202 

In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

ADVERTISEMENT    OF    "PAMELA" 205 

In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

SIGNATURE  OF   FRANKLIN'S   PARTNER 206 

Original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

INDENTURE  OF  JAMES  FRANKLIN  TO    HIS   UNCLE  BEN- 
JAMIN     209 

Original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

MR.  JOHN  BASKERVILLE,  OF  PLYMOUTH 211 

WILLIAM    STRAHAN 214 

After  the  portrait  in  the  possession  of  Clarence  W.  Bement.     Half-tone  plate  en- 
graved by  Peter  Aitken. 

A   LETTER   WRITTEN,   BUT   NEVER  SENT,   BY    FRANKLIN 

TO    STRAHAN 217 

Original  in  the  Department  of  State,  Washington,  D.  C. 

CONTINENTAL   PAPER  MONEY  DESIGNED  BY  FRANKLIN  219 

xiv 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

I'AGE 

FRANKLIN   SEAL 220 

From  an  impression  in  possession  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Phila- 
delphia. 

THE     GRAMMAR     FROM     WHICH     FRANKLIN     LEARNED 

ENGLISH 223 

REDUCED    FACSIMILE    OF  A    PORTION    OF    FRANKLIN'S 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 229 

By  courtesy  of  the  owner,  Hon.  John  Bigelow. 

YEARLY   VERSES    OF    PRINTER'S    LAD    OF    THE    "PENN- 
SYLVANIA  GAZETTE" ..  232 

In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

TITLE-PAGE    OF    "THE    GENERAL    MAGAZINE    AND    HIS- 
TORICAL CHRONICLE  " 235 

From  the  copy  in  the  Congressional  Library,  Washington. 

RESIDENCE  OF   LORD  LE  DESPENSER,  WEST  WYCOMBE  243 
Drawn  by  Otto  H.  Bacher. 

FRANKLIN'S   FICTITIOUS   NEWSPAPER 246 

From  the  copy  in  the  Congressional  Library,  Washington. 

FRANKLIN'S  FICTITIOUS  CHAPTER  OF  THE    BIBLE,  USU- 
ALLY  STYLED   A   PARABLE   AGAINST    PERSECUTION  253 

In  the  possession  of  the  author. 

WILLIAM  FRANKLIN,  ELDER  SON  OF  BENJAMIN   FRANK- 
LIN    258 

After  a  pencil-drawing  by  Albert  Rosenthal  from  the  original  painting,  the  prop- 
erty of  Dr.  Thomas  Hewson  Bache. 

FACSIMILE   OF  EPITAPH  IN    FRANKLIN'S   HANDWRITING  262 

ONE  OF  THE  COLONIAL  FLAGS  OF  THE  PENNSYLVANIA 

"  ASSOCIATORS,"  1747 263 

Designed  by  Franklin  and  made  by  the  women  of  Philadelphia.    From  the  "  Penn- 
sylvania Magazine,"  by  permission  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania 

DR.  BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 266 

Engraved  by  T.  Johnson,  from  a  painting  by  D.  Martin.     Property  of  the  Earl 
of  Stanhope. 

MRS.  DEBORAH    FRANKLIN    271 

Engraved  on  wood  by  Henry  Wolf,  after  the  portrait  in  possession  of  Rev.  F.  H. 
Hodge,  D.  D.,  Wilkesbarre,  Pennsylvania. 

POWER   OF   ATTORNEY   TO   DEBORAH    FRANKLIN 277 

In  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

GREENE   HOMESTEAD,  AT   WARWICK,   RHODE   ISLAND   .  282 
Drawn  by  Harry  Fenn.     Half-tone  plate  engraved  by  F.  S.  King. 

XV 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

GEORGIANA   SHIPLEY   HARE-NAYLOR 285 

Half-tone  plate  engraved  by  Samuel  Davis,  after  the  miniature  in  the  possession 
of  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare. 

MRS.  MARY  (STEVENSON)    HEWSON 288 

Half-tone  plate  engraved  by  Peter  Aitken,  after  the  picture  in  the  possession  of 
C.  S.  Bradford,  Philadelphia. 

ELIZABETH    FRANgOISE,   COUNTESS    D'HOUDETOT 290 

From  a  print. 

MME.    HELVETIUS 295 

Engraved   on  wood  by   Frank  French,  from  a  miniature  in  the  possession  of 
M.  Alfred  Dutens. 

WILLIAM    TEMPLE  FRANKLIN,  1790 300 

Grandson  of  Benjamin  Franklin.     From  the  original  painting  in  the  Trtimbull 
collection  of  the  Yale  School  of  Art,  New  Haven,  Connecticut. 

LADY  JULIANA    PENN 305 

From  a  photograph  by  H.  H.  Hay  Cameron,  of  portrait  by  Peter  Van  Dyke, 
in  the  possession  of  the  Earl  of  Ranfurly. 

FRANKLIN'S   INVITATION    TO  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  MLLE. 
BRILLON,   TO   WHOM    HE    HAD   WISHED   TO   MARRY 

HIS   GRANDSON 307 

(The  indorsement  is  in  Franklin's  handwriting.)     From  the  original  in  the  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

ASSOCIATION    BATTERY 308 

From  an  original  sketch  in  the  possession  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

A   BILL   OF  JOSIAH    FRANKLIN    FOR   CANDLES  310 

In  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

SAMUEL   FRANKLIN 313 

Engraved  on  wood  from  the  portrait  in  the  possession  of  Samuel  Franklin  Em- 
mons,  Washington,  D.  C. 

FRANKLIN'S   OLD    BOOK-SHOP,    NEAR    CHRIST   CHURCH, 

PHILADELPHIA 317 

Drawn  by  Otto  H.  Bacher,  from  an  old  print. 

A   CATALOGUE 320 

Owned  by  T.  J.  McKee. 

MEDAL   COMMEMORATING   AMERICAN    LIBERTY 323 

Designed  and  struck  for  Franklin  in  Paris,  1783.     In  the  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art. 

JOSIAH   WEDGWOOD 326 

Painted  by  Reynolds.     Engraved  on  wood  by  Peter  Aitken,  after  portrait  in  the 
possession  of  Earl  Crawford. 

XVI 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

JOHN   FLAXMAN '331 

Painted  by  George  Romney.     Engraved  on  wood  by  Henry  Wolf.      In    the 
National  Portrait  Gallery,  London. 

BENJAMIN   WEST 335 

Painted  by  himself.     Engraved  on  wood  by  Henry  Wolf,  after  portrait  in  the 
Royal  Academy. 

MAP   OF  THE   SIEGE    OF   LOUISBURG 339 

In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

BACK   OF   CONTINENTAL   CURRENCY 349 

Showing  Franklin's  use  of  the  veining  of  leaves  to  make  counterfeiting  difficult. 

ENTRANCE     TO     LITTLE     BRITAIN,     LONDON,     WHERE 

FRANKLIN   LIVED   IN  1726 350 

From  a  water-color  sketch  in  the  British  Museum. 

J.  A.  NOLLET 352 

A.  L.  LAVOISIER 354 

From  a  lithograph. 

SIR   HANS   SLOANE 356 

Painted  by  Stephen  Slaughter.     Engraved  on  wood  by  T.  Johnson.     In  the  Na- 
tional Portrait  Gallery,  London. 

FRANKLIN'S     MODEL     OF     "THE     PENNSYLVANIA     FIRE- 
PLACE " 359 

In  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

PETER   COLLINSON 363 

From  a  print. 

FACSIMILE   OF   LETTER  FROM   JOSEPH-IGNACE  GUILLO- 

TIN   TO   FRANKLIN 365,366 

JOSEPH    PRIESTLEY 369 

Drawn  by  Mrs.  Sharpies.     Engraved  on  wood  by  Peter  Aitken,  from  a  pastel 
in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  London. 

COPLEY  MEDAL  OF  THE  ROYAL  SOCIETY 372 

Awarded  to  Franklin  for  his  discoveries  in  electricity.     From  a  print  in  the 
"Gentleman's  Magazine,"  December,  1753. 

JOSEPH-IGNACE  GUILLOTIN 375 

From  an  engraving  by  F.  Bonneville. 

LETTER  OF  MESMER  TO  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 37« 

Original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

SIR  JOSEPH    BANKS 381 

Engraved  on  wood  by  Peter  Aitken,  from  a  portrait  in  the  Royal  Society, 
London. 

xvii 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

CAPTAIN  JAMES  COOK 384 

Painted  by  John  Welber.    Engraved  on  wood  by  Peter  Aitken.     In  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery,  London. 

ERASMUS  DARWIN 386 

Painted  by  Joseph  Wright.     Engraved  on  wood  by  T.  Johnson.     In  the  Na- 
tional Portrait  Gallery,  London. 

THE   ENGLISH   ALMANAC   FROM  WHICH  FRANKLIN  BOR- 
ROWED  THE   NAME 388 

Original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

BENJAMIN   WEST'S   PENCIL-SKETCH    OF    FRANKLIN 395 

In  the  possession  of  the  Hon.  Samuel  W.  Pennypacker. 

TITLE-PAGE   OF   FIRST   ISSUE   OF   POOR   RICHARD 401 

SPECIMEN    PAGE   OF   "POOR   RICHARD'S  ALMANAC" 406 

FIRST  ENGLISH  EDITION  OF  "  POOR  RICHARD'S  SAYINGS"  408 
From  the  copy  in  the  possession  of  Paul  Leicester  Ford. 

TITLE-PAGE  OF  FIRST  FRENCH  EDITION  OF  "  POOR  RICH- 
ARD'S  SAYINGS  " 411 

From  the  copy  in  the  possession  of  Paul  Leicester  Ford. 

TITLE-PAGE   OF   POCKET-EDITION    OF   POOR   RICHARD..  415 
From  the  copy  in  the  Congressional  Library,  Washington. 

FRANKLIN'S   CALLING   CARD 417 

SYMBOLICAL    PRINT    BY    FRANKLIN 418 

From  the  "Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  1754,  in  the  Historical    Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania. 

FRANKLIN'S     "MODEST    ENQUIRY    INTO    THE     NATURE 

AND   NECESSITY   OF  A  PAPER  CURRENCY" 420 

Original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

THOMAS   PENN 425 

From  a  photograph  by  H.  H.  Hay  Cameron,  of  portrait  by  Peter  Van  Dyke,  in 
the  possession  of  the  Earl  of  Ranfurly. 

CARICATURE      PRINT      OF      FRANKLIN      AND      PAXTON, 

RIOTERS 428 

From  a  print  in  the  Ridgway  Library,  Philadelphia. 

A    POLITICAL   SQUIB   AGAINST    FRANKLIN 430 

Original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

CARICATURE   OF   ELECTION   OF   1764  435 

In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

xviii 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

ALEXANDER     WEDDERBURN,     LORD     LOUGHROROUGH, 

FIRST   EARL   OF   ROSSLYN 439 

From  the  original  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  by  William  Owen,  R.  A. 

WILLIAM    PITT,    EARL   OF   CHATHAM 444 

Painted  by  Richard  Bro-npton.  Engraved  by  T.  Johnson.  In  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery. 

RICHARD,  EARL    HOWE,   K.  G 451 

Painted  by  Henry  Singleton.  Engraved  by  E.  Heinemann.  In  the  National 
Portrait  Gallery. 

THE    HON.  MRS.   HOWE 455 

From  an  engraving  by  Hopwood  of  the  drawing  by  Craig.  In  the  Emmet  col- 
lection, Lenox  Library,  New  York. 

A   SYMBOLICAL    PLATE    DESIGNED    BY    FRANKLIN 458 

Original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

DAVID    HARTLEY 463 

Engraved  by  Peter  Aitken,  from  the  painting  by  Walker  of  the  portrait  by  Roni- 
ney,  formerly  owned  by  Clarence  W.  Bement,  Esq. 

THE   UNITED   STATES  COMMISSIONERS  TO  NEGOTIATE 

THE   TREATY  OF    PEACE    (1783) 465 

From  a  photograph  given  by  Charles  Sumner  to  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine 
Arts  of  an  unfinished  picture  by  Benjamin  West,  owned  by  Lord  Helper.  Or- 
der of  figures  from  the  left:  Jay,  Adams,  Franklin,  L.uirens,  Temple  Franklin. 

FRANKLIN'S    CHESS-BOARD,    CHESSMEN,  AND    HOLDER..  466 
In  the  possession  of  C.  S.  Bradford,  Philadelphia. 

VICTOR    HUGO'S    DRAWING   OF    FRANKLIN'S   HOUSE    AT 

PASSY 467 

DR.    FRANKLIN 470 

From  the  miniature  given  by  Dr.  Franklin  to  his  dear  friend,  Bishop  Jonathan 
Shipley,  on  parting,  on  his  return  from  England  to  America.  In  the  collection 
of  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare. 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN'S  RESIDENCE  IN  LONDON,  IN  1760.  475 
In  the  Emrnet  collection,  Lenox  Library,  New  York. 

LORD    KAMES 478 

EARL   OF   HILLSBOROUGH,  BY   FLAXMAN   483 

From  a  medallion  in  possession  of  Sir  J.  Lumsden  Propert. 

LOUIS   ALEXANDRE,  DUG  DE   LA  ROCHEFOUCAULD 489 

Deputy  from  the  city  of  Paris  to  the  National  Assembly  in  1789.  From  an  en- 
graving by  Fiesinger  after  a  portrait  by  J.  Guerin. 

xix 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

A.  B.  J.  TURGOT..  493 

From  an  engraving  by  C.  H.  Watelet  after  a  drawing  by  Cochin  the  Younger. 

FRANKLIN'S  NOTICE  CONCERNING  THE  FRENCH  COURT  498 
From  the  original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

DINNER   INVITATION   OF   LAFAYETTE   TO  FRANKLIN....  502 
From  the  original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

ZION  SOCIETY  LUTHERAN  CHURCH 507 

Formerly  at  the  southeast  corner  of  Fourth  and  Cheney  streets,  Philadelphia, 
where  Franklin's  funeral  service  was  held.     After  a  print  by  Birch. 

FRANKLIN    BURIAL    PLOT    IN    CHRIST    CHURCH    CEME- 
TERY, PHILADELPHIA 509 

From  a  photograph. 


XX 


THE 
MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


_  *«* 

FACSIMILE    OF    ENTRY    OK    FRANKLIN'S    13IRTH    IN    BOS  1  ON    TOWN    RECORDS. 


THE 
MANY-SIDED  FRANKLIN 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

"  A  MAN,"  wrote  Franklin,  "who  makes  boast  of  his 
-lA-  ancestors  doth  but  advertise  his  own  insignifi- 
cance, for  the  pedigrees  of  great  men  are  commonly 
known  "  ;  and  elsewhere  he  advised:  "  Let  our  fathers 
and  grandfathers  be  valued  for  their  goodness,  ourselves 
for  our  own."  Clearly  this  objection  extended  to  pride 
of  birth  alone,  and  not  to  knowledge  of  one's  forebears ; 
for  Franklin  himself  displayed  not  a  little  interest  in  his 
progenitors,  and  when  he  went  to  England  as  the  agent 
of  his  colony  he  devoted  both  time  and  travel  to  search- 
ing out  the  truth  concerning  them.  Nor  was  he,  in  fact, 
wholly  without  conceit  of  family.  In  default  of  dis- 
covered greatness  in  his  kindred,  he  expressed  pleasure 
in  an  inference  that  the  family  name  was  derived  from 
the  old  social  order  of  small  freeholders,  and,  therefore, 
that  they  were  once  the  betters  of  the  yeomen  and 
feudatories. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


Still  another  fact,  too,  suggests  that  he  was  not 
wholly  indifferent  to  the  world's  knowledge  of  his 
lineage.  Though  his  father  questioned  if  they  were 
entitled  to  use  either  of  the  Franklin  arms,  and  added 
that  "  our  circumstances  have  been  such  as  that  it  hath 


BOOK-PLATE    OF    JOHN    FRANKLIN. 
Original  in  the  possession  of  C.  R.  Lichtenstein,  Boston. 

hardly  been  worth  while  to  concern  ourselves  much 
about  these  things  any  farther  than  to  tickle  the  fancy 
a  little,"  Benjamin  did  not  hesitate  to  appropriate  one 
of  the  Franklin  coats  of  arms  while  yet  only  a  master 
printer,  for  as  early  as  1751  he  advertised: 

2 


FAMILY   RELATIONS 

"  Lost  about  5  weeks  since,  a  silver  seal,  with  a  Coat  of 
Arms  engrav'd,  containing  two  Lions  Heads,  two  Doves  and 
a  Dolphin.  Whoever  brings  it  to  the  Post-Office,  shall  have 
Five  Shillings  reward." 

Furthermore,  in  adopting  this  heraldic  badge,  he  made 
objection  to  its  being  cheapened,  by  telling  a  soap- 
making  relative  that  he  "  would  not  have  him  put  the 
Franklin  arms  on  "  his  cakes,  although  he  did  not  mind 
a  brother  in  the  same  business  using  the  escutcheon  as 
a  book-plate. 

Franklin's  inquiry  into  the  history  of  his  family  re- 
sulted in  the  discovery  that  they  had  dwelt  on  some 
thirty  acres  of  their  own  land  in  the  village  of  Ecton, 
in  Northamptonshire,  upward  of  three  hundred  years, 
and  that  for  many  generations  the  eldest  son  had  been 
village  blacksmith — a  custom  so  established  previous  to 
the  removal  across  the  Atlantic  that  the  first  immigrant 
bred  up  his  eldest  son  to  the  trade  in  Boston.  Fate, 
having  other  uses  for  Benjamin,  carefully  guarded  him 
from  Vulcan's  calling  by  making  him  the  youngest  son 
of  the  youngest  son  for  five  generations. 

Josiah  Franklin  came  to  New  England  about  1685, 
with  Ann,  his  wife,  and  three  children,  a  number  which 
swelled  to  seven  within  the  next  four  years,  the  mother 
dying  in  childbed  in  1689.  Less  than  six  months  later 
the  widower  married  Abiah  Folger,  and  to  this  union 
there  were  born  ten  children,  making  in  all  seventeen. 
Writing  of  the  large  birth-rate  in  the  colonies,  Franklin 
asserted  that  it  was  rare  for  more  than  half  of  each 
family  to  reach  adult  life — a  statement  not  derived  from 
personal  experience ;  for,  "  out  of  seventeen  children 

3 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

that  our  father  had,  thirteen  lived  to  grow  up  and  settle 
in  the  world."  In  common  with  other  New  England 
families  of  that  day,  the  stock  seemed  to  be  weakened 
by  this  redundancy :  though  Josiah  was  one  of  five 
brothers,  and  the  father  of  ten  sons,  there  was  not, 
when  the  eighteenth  century  ended,  a  single  descendant 
of  any  one  of  the  fifteen  entitled  to  the  surname. 

Benjamin,  the  "tithe,"  or  tenth,  of  Josiah's  sons, 
born  January  6,  1706,  outlived  them  all.  From  his 
father  he  derived  a  heritage  difficult  to  measure,  but 
two  of  his  qualities  were  singled  out  by  the  son  as 
specially  noteworthy :  "  a  sound  understanding  and 
solid  judgment  in  prudential  matters,  both  in  private 
and  publick  affairs,"  and  a  "  mechanic  genius  "  in  being 
"  very  handy  in  the  use  of  other  tradesmen's  tools." 
"  It  was  indeed  a  lowly  dwelling  we  were  brought  up 
in,"  wrote  one  of  the  children,  many  years  after,  "  but 
we  were  fed  plentifully,  made  comfortable  with  fire  and 
clothing,  had  seldom  any  contention  among  us,  but  all 
was  harmony,  especially  between  the  heads,  and  they 
were  universally  respected,  and  the  most  of  the  family 
in  good  reputation  ;  this  is  still  happier  living  than  mul- 
titudes enjoy." 

As  this  might  indicate,  Josiah  Franklin,  despite  his 
struggle  with  poverty  and  his  huge  family,  was  a  good 
parent  to  his  youngest  boy,  giving  heed  to  his  moral, 
mental,  and  temporal  beginnings.  After  such  brief 
term  of  school  as  he  could  afford  the  lad,  he  took  him 
into  his  own  shop,  till  Ben  made  obvious  his  dislike  to 
the  cutting  of  wicks,  the  hanging  of  dips,  and  the  cast- 
ing of  soap.  Taking  pains  then  to  discover  his  son's 

4 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

preferences,  he  finally  apprenticed  him  as  printer's  devil 
to  his  son  James.  When  the  brothers  quarreled,  and 
appeal  was  made  to  the  father,  "judgment,"  the  pren- 
tice says,  "  was  generally  in  my  favour."  And  though 


ANN  FRANKLIN'S  GRAVESTONE. 

Granary  Burying-ground,  Boston. 

Ben  earned  his  own  livelihood  from  the  time  that  he 
was  twelve  years  of  age,  and  saw  his  father  only  three 
times  after  he  was  sixteen,  wherever  he  speaks  of  him 
it  is  with  affection  and  respect.  When  he  wrote  to 
him,  the  letters  began,  "  Honored  Father,"  and  ended, 
"  I  am  your  dutiful  son,"  or  "  I  am  your  affectionate 
and  dutiful  son  "  ;  while  Josiah  Franklin,  in  turn,  began 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

his  letters,  "  Loving  Son,"  and  ended  one,  "  With  hearty 
love."  More  warmly  still  the  son  spoke  of  his  father 
and  mother  in  a  letter  to  his  sister,  whom  he  chided 
because  "  you  have  mentioned  nothing  in  your  letter 
of  our  dear  parents,"  writing  again,  during  the  final 
illness  of  his  father:  "  Dear  Sister,  I  love  you  tenderly 
for  your  care  of  our  father  in  his  sickness."  Josiah 
Franklin  died  in  1745,  leaving  an  estate  valued  at 
twenty-four  hundred  dollars. 

In  Franklin's  autobiography  there  is  only  the  barest 
mention  of  his  mother,  Abiah,  and  merely  as  the 
daughter  of  "  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  New  England." 
Presumably  this  silence  was  due  to  the  eighteenth- 
century  attitude  toward  women  more  than  to  any  want 
of  affection,  for  the  two  corresponded  with  regularity, 
even  after  the  mother  was  "  very  weak  and  short  of 
breath — so  that  I  cannot  sit  up  to  write  altho'  I  sleep 
well  o'  nights  and  my  cough  is  better  and  I  have  a 
pretty  good  stomach  to  my  victuals,"  and  she  had  to 
beg  her  son  to  "  please  excuse  my  bad  writeing  and 
inditing  for  all  tell  me  I  am  too  old  to  write  letters." 
To  her  Franklin  sent  gifts  of  various  kinds,  including 
"  a  moidore  .  .  .  which  please  to  accept  towards  chaise 
hire,  that  you  may  ride  warm  to  meetings  this  winter." 
Upon  her  death,  in  1752,  he  wrote  his  sister  Jane:  "  I 
received  yours  with  the  affecting  news  of  our  dear 
mother's  death.  I  thank  you  for  your  long  continued 
care  of  her  in  her  old  age  and  sickness.  Our  distance 
made  it  impracticable  for  us  to  attend  her,  but  you  have 
supplied  all.  She  has  lived  a  good  life,  as  well  as 
long  one,  and  is  happy." 

6 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

Franklin  paid  for  the  stone  which  marked  the  grave 
of  his  parents,  and  wrote  for  it  an  inscription  which 
vouched  that  "  He  was  a  pious  and  prudent  man  ;  She 
a  discreet  and  virtuous  woman  "  ;  and  though  elsewhere 


FRANKLIN'S  MONUMENT  TO  HIS  PARENTS. 

Granary  Burying-ground,  Boston. 

he  cites  the  conventional  epitaph  as  the  extreme  form 
of  falsehood,  he  was  certainly  justified  in  this  inscrip- 
tion. "  Honor  thy  father  and  mother — i.  e.  live  so  as 
to  be  an  honor  to  them  tho'  they  are  dead,"  he  made 

7 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Poor  Richard  advise  his  readers,  and  for  once  preacher 
and  practiser  were  united. 

"Among  the  Chinese,"  he  noted,  with  approval,  "the  most 
ancient,  and  from  long  experience  the  wisest  of  nations,  honor 
does  not  descend,  but  ascends.  If  a  man,  from  his  learning, 
his  wisdom,  or  his  valor,  is  promoted  by  the  emperor  to  the 
rank  of  Mandarin,  his  parents  are  immediately  entitled  to  all 
the  same  ceremonies  of  respect  from  the  people  that  are  es- 
tablished as  due  to  the  Mandarin  himself;  on  the  supposition 
that  it  must  have  been  owing  to  the  education,  instruction, 
and  good  example  afforded  him  by  his  parents,  that  he  was 
rendered  capable  of  serving  the  public." 

Of  his  relations  with  the  sixteen  brothers  and  sisters 
it  is  impossible  to  deal  with  any  fullness.  Four  of  the 
brothers  died  young,  and  a  fifth,  taking  to  the  sea,  was 
so  little  an  element  in  the  family  life  that  Benjamin 
remembered  "  thirteen  (some  of  us  then  very  young) 
all  at  one  table,  when  an  entertainment  was  made  at 
our  house  on  the  occasion  of  the  return  of  our  brother 
Josiah,  who  had  been  absent  in  the  East  Indies  and 
unheard  of  for  nine  years."  If  this  brother,  who  soon 
after  was  lost  at  sea,  was  apparently  a  small  component 
in  Franklin's  life,  he  none  the  less  influenced  it  materi- 
ally, since  from  him  the  youngster  imbibed  a  keen 
desire  to  be  a  sailor,  and  his  father's  fear  that  he  would 
run  away  was  a  potent  motive  for  letting  the  boy  leave 
the  trade  of  soap-making. 

As  already  mentioned,  Benjamin  did  not  get  on  well 
with  the  half-brother  to  whom  he  was  bound  to  learn 
printing.  James  Franklin  was  only  ten  years  older 
than  his  apprentice,  and  very  quickly  the  boy 
made  himself  as  expert  as  his  brother,  who,  if  we  are 

8 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

to  believe  Franklin,  turned  jealous,  and  on  occasion 
beat  him  with  unnecessary  severity  ;  though,  in  charging 
that  his  master  was  passionate,  the  printer's  boy  con- 
fessed that  he  himself  was  saucy  and  provoking.  James 
Franklin  was  forbidden  presently  by  the  government  to 
print  his  newspaper,  the  "  New  England  Courant,"  and 
it  was  continued,  by  a  subterfuge,  in  Benjamin's  name, 
the  indenture  being  canceled  to  make  the  trick  a  little 
less  barefaced.  Availing  himself  of  this  technical 
release,  Franklin  left  his  brother's  service — an  act  that 
he  later  acknowledged  to  be  his  first  serious  "  erratum," 
and  one  which  set  James  Franklin  to  advertising  for  "  A 
Likely  Lad  for  an  Apprentice,"  little  recking  how  likely 
a  lad  he  had  lost.  For  a  number  of  years  the  breach 
thus  made  continued  to  exist,  though  the  mother  urged 
reconciliation  on  them  both.  After  James  Franklin's 
death,  a  turn  of  Fortune's  wheel  led  Franklin  to  take 
the  eldest  son  of  this  brother  as  an  apprentice ;  and 
though  he  records  that  "  Jemmy  Franklin  when  with 
me  was  always  dissatisfied  and  grumbling,"  yet  from 
the  moment  the  apprenticeship  was  over  "  he  and  I  " 
became  "  Good  friends."  He  helped  the  boy  to  estab- 
lish himself  as  a  printer  at  New  Haven,  and  again  at 
Newport,  sent  him  occasional  gifts  of  paper,  printing- 
ink,  etc.,  and  loaned  him  money  to  the  extent  of  over 
two  hundred  pounds  to  buy  types  and  a  stock  of  books 
and  stationery.  That  the  old  grudge  was  forgotten  is 
proved,  too,  by  Franklin's  will,  in  which  he  left  as 
much  to  the  descendants  of  James  Franklin  as  to  the 
descendants  of  his  other  brothers  and  sisters.  He 
seems,  indeed,  to  have  hated  family  broils  or  aliena- 

9 


LETTER    OF    MARY    FRANKLIN. 
In  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia,  P 


FAMILY   RELATIONS 

tion,  and  when  a  sister  once  appealed  to  him  to  espouse 
her  side  of  a  disagreement,  he  replied  : 

"  If  I  were  to  set  myself  up  as  a  judge  .  .  .  between  you  and 
your  brother's  widow  and  children,  how  unqualified  must  I 
be,  at  this  distance,  to  determine  rightly,  especially  having 
heard  but  one  side.  They  always  treated  me  with  friendly 
and  affectionate  regard ;  you  have  done  the  same.  What  can 
I  say  between  you,  but  that  I  wish  you  were  reconciled,  and 
that  I  will  love  that  side  best  that  is  most  ready  to  forgive  and 
oblige  the  other  ?  You  will  be  angry  with  me  here,  for  put- 
ting you  and  them  too  much  upon  a  footing ;  but  I  shall  nev- 
ertheless be,  dear  sister,  your  truly  affectionate  brother." 

More  direct  aid  was  afforded  his  two  own  brothers, 
John  and  Peter,  both  of  whom  set  out  in  life  in  their 
father's  trade  of  soap-  and  candle-making.  Although 
Benjamin  objected  to  their  stamping  the  Franklin  arms 
on  their  cakes  of  soap,  he  ordered  quantities  of  their 
wares  from  them  both,  which  his  wife  retailed  in  his 
book-shop  in  Philadelphia,  and  increased  the  sale  by 
recurrent  advertisements  in  Franklin's  paper,  which  an- 
nounced with  each  consignment : 

"Just  imported,  another  Parcel  of 
"SUPER  FINE  CROWN  SOAP. 

"  It  cleanses  fine  Linens,  Muslins,  Laces,  Chinees,  Cambricks 
&c.  with  Ease  and  Expedition,  which  often  suffer  more  from 
the  long  and  hard  Rubbing  of  the  Washer,  through  the  ill 
Qualities  of  the  Soap  they  use,  than  the  Wearing.  It  is  excel- 
lent for  the  Washing  of  Scarlets,  or  any  other  bright  and  curi- 
ous Colours,  that  are  apt  to  change  by  the  Use  of  common 
Soap.  The  Sweetness  of  the  Flavor  and  the  fine  Lather  it 
immediately  produces,  renders  it  pleasant  for  the  Use  of  Bar- 
bers. It  is  cut  in  exact  and  equal  Cakes  neatly  put  up,  and 
sold  at  the  New  Printing  Office,  at  is.  per  Cake." 

1  1 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Neither  brother,  however,  seems  to  have  prospered  in 
the  business,  for  when  Franklin  became  Deputy  Post- 
master-General he  made  John  postmaster  of  Boston, 
and  Peter  postmaster  of  Philadelphia.  Of  the  former 
Franklin  says,  in  his  autobiography,  that  "  he  always 
lov'd  me  "  ;  and  though  there  was  some  family  joking 
about  Peter's  perpetual  doctoring  of  himself,  so  that 
"  he  cures  himself  many  times  a  day,"  Benjamin  seems 
to  have  been  fond  of  him  also,  showing  evident  grief 
when  "  it  pleased  God  at  length  to  take  from  us  my 
only  remaining  brother."  He  aided  the  two  widows, 
establishing  one  in  business,  and  continuing  the  other 
as  postmistress,  thus  making  her,  so  far  as  is  known, 
the  first  woman  to  hold  public  office  in  America. 

"  He  that  has  neither  fools  nor  beggars  among  his 
kindred,  is  the  son  of  thunder-gust,"  remarked  Poor 
Richard;  and  Franklin's  sisters  were  no  more  prosper- 
ous in  life  than  were  his  brothers.  The  eldest,  Eliza- 
beth, when  over  eighty  years  old,  came  to  extreme 
poverty,  and  her  relatives  consulted  the  only  successful 
member  of  the  family  as  to  whether  her  house  and 
"  fine  things  "  should  be  sold. 

"  As  having  their  own  way  is  one  of  the  greatest  comforts 
of  life  to  old  people,"  Benjamin  replied,  "  I  think  their  friends 
should  endeavour  to  accommodate  them  in  that,  as  well  as  in 
any  thing  else.  When  they  have  long  lived  in  a  house,  it  be- 
comes natural  to  them ;  they  are  almost  as  closely  connected 
with  it  as  the  tortoise  with  his  shell ;  they  die,  if  you  tear  them 
out  of  it ;  old  folks  and  old  trees,  if  you  remove  them,  it  is  ten  to 
one  that  you  kill  them  ;  so  let  our  good  old  sister  be  no  more 
importuned  on  that  head.  We  are  growing  old  fast  ourselves, 
and  shall  expect  the  same  kind  of  indulgences ;  if  we  give 
them,  we  shall  have  a  right  to  receive  them  in  our  turn.  And 

12 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

as  to  her  few  fine  things,  I  think  she  is  in  the  right  not  to  sell 
them,  and  for  the  reason  she  gives,  that  they  will  fetch  but 
little;  when  that  little  is  spent,  they  would  be  of  no  further  use 
to  her;  but  perhaps  the  expectation  of  possessing  them  at  her 
death  may  make  that  person  tender  and  careful  of  her,  and 
helpful  to  her  to  the  amount  of  ten  times  their  value.  If  so, 
they  are  put  to  the  best  use  they  possibly  can  be." 

A  small  bequest  was  made  in  Franklin's  will  to  his 
sister  Ann's  children  and  grandchildren.  Several  of 
these  drifted  to  London  before  the  Revolution,  and 
appealed  to  their  uncle,  when  he  came  to  France,  for 
various  kinds  of  assistance.  One  was  "  Obliged  to 
Worke  very  hard  and  Can  But  just  git  the  common 
necessarys  of  life,"  and  therefore  has  "  thoughts  of 
going  into  a  family  as  housekeeper  .  .  .  having  lived 
in  that  station  for  several  years  and  gave  grate  satisfac- 
tion." She  sought  his  aid  in  securing  the  promotion  of 
her  son,  then  in  the  British  navy — a  peculiar  request, 
considering  Franklin's  relations,  or  lack  of  relations,  at 
the  moment,  with  the  British  government.  Toward 
another,  Jonathan  Williams,  the  uncle  seems  to  have 
been  well  disposed.  He  took  charge  of  his  education 
while  in  London,  made  the  young  fellow  his  secretary 
for  a  time,  and  finally  was  instrumental  in  having  him 
made  commercial  agent  of  the  United  States  in  France 
during  the  Revolution,  an  appointment  which  caused 
first  "oblique  Censures,"  and  ultimately  outspoken  de- 
nunciations. Williams  was  accused  of  dishonesty,  and 
his  uncle  promptly  wrote : 

"  I  have  no  desire  to  screen  Mr.  Williams  on  account  of  his 
being  my  nephew  ;  if  he  is  guilty  of  what  you  charge  him 
with,  I  care  not  how  soon  he  is  deservedly  punished  and 

'3 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

the  family  purged  of  him;  for  I  take  it  that  a  rogue  liv- 
ing in  a  family  is  a  greater  disgrace  to  it  than  one  hanged 
out  of  it.  ' 

Fortunately,  the  nephew  was  able  to  clear  himself; 
but  the  appointment  had  caused  scandal,  and  had  been 
one  source  of  the  American  divisions  in  Paris,  as  well  as 
in  the  Continental  Congress.  Another  unfortunate 
result  was  that  Williams  later  became  embarrassed  in 
some  private  ventures  in  France,  and  Franklin  unjusti- 
fiably used  the  influence  of  his  position  to  secure  from 
the  French  government  a  surscance  as  regarded  his 
creditors. 

Franklin's  sister  Sarah  died  shortly  after  marriage — 
"  a  loss  without  doubt  regretted  by  all  who  knew  her, 
for  she  was  a  good  woman."  Her  husband,  Josiah 
Davenport,  encouraged  by  his  brother-in-law,  removed 
to  Philadelphia,  and  opened  a  bakery,  where  he  sold 
"  Choice  middling  bisket,"  varied  by  occasional  offerings 
of  "  Boston  loaf  sugar  "  and  "  choice  pickled  and  spiced 
Oisters  in  Cags."  One  of  her  sons,  on  the  death  of 
Peter  Franklin,  was  appointed  by  his  uncle  postmaster 
of  Philadelphia ;  but  he  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
competent,  and  was  soon  superseded  by  another  ap- 
pointee, and  given  a  smaller  office  under  the  govern- 
ment. 

Of  all  his  sisters,  the  youngest,  Jane,  was,  so  Franklin 
told  her,  "  ever  my  peculiar  favorite  "  ;  and  he  took 
pride  in  the  news  that  she  had  "  grown  a  celebrated 
beauty."  Evidently  it  was  not  merely  a  fraternal  view, 
for  the  girl  was  married  at  fifteen,  the  brother  writing 
her,  upon  the  event,  that  he  had  "  almost  determined  " 

14 


FAMILY    ACCor.NT    IX    FRANKLIN'S    \VRIT1X(;. 
In  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

to  send  her  "  a  tea  table,  but  when  I  considered  the 
character  of  a  good  house  wife  was  far  preferable  to 
that  of  being  only  a  pretty  gentlewoman,  I  concluded  to 
send  you  a  spinning  wheel,  which  I  hope  you  will  accept 
as  a  small  token  of  my  sincere  love  and  affection." 
And  in  this  monitory  strain  the  aged  brother  of  twenty 
continued : 

"  Sister,  farewell,  and  remember  that  modesty  as  it  makes  the 
most  homely  virtue  amiable  and  charming,  so  the  want  of  it 
infallibly  renders  the  most  perfect  beauty  disagreeable  and 
odious.  But  when  that  brightest  of  female  virtues  shines 
among  other  perfections  of  body  and  mind  in  the  same  per- 
son, it  makes  the  woman  more  lovely  than  an  angel.  Excuse 
this  freedom,  and  use  the  same  with  me.  I  am,  dear  Jenny, 
Your  loving  brother." 

A  very  large  progeny  resulted  from  this  marriage,  in  all 
of  whom  Franklin  took  an  interest.  "  My  compliments 
to  my  new  niece,  Miss  Abiah,  and  pray  her  to  accept 
the  enclosed  piece  of  gold,  to  cut  her  teeth  ;  it  may  after- 
wards buy  nuts  for  them  to  crack,"  he  wrote  of  one 
arrival ;  and  gave  material  help  to  the  children  as  they 
grew  up,  aiding  one  to  sell  the  soap  he  made ;  taking  a 
second  as  an  apprentice  in  his  printing-office,  and  after- 
ward assisting  in  his  establishment  in  that  business ; 
endeavoring  to  get  a  government  position  for  a  third ; 
and,  on  the  marriage  of  a  fourth,  sending  a  gift  of  "  fifty 
pounds,  lawful  money,"  to  be  laid  out  in  "  furniture  as 
my  sister  shall  think  proper."  From  this  niece  he  re- 
ceived an  exuberant  acknowledgment,  declaring  that : 

"  My  Heart,  has  ever  been  suseptible  of  the  warmest  gratitude 
for  your  frequent  Benefactions  to  the  whole  Family,  but  your 

16 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

last  kind,  unexpected,  as  well  as  undiserved,  Noble  presents 
in  particular  to  me,  calls  for  a  particular  acknowledgment  from 
me.  Except  then  dearest  sir,  my  most  sincere  and  hearty 
Thanks,  with  a  promise,  that  your  Kindness  shall  ever  be 
gratefully  remembered  and  your  donation  be  made  the  best 
use  of."  ' 

Jane  herself  carried  this  admiration  even  to  the  point 
of  veneration ;  yet  when  absent  from  her  brother  she 
expressed  her  regret,  having  "  had  time  to  reflect  and 
see  my  error,  in  that  I  suffered  my  diffidence  or  the 
awe  of  your  superiority  to  prevent  the  familiarity  I 
might  have  taken  with  you,  and  which  your  kindness 
to  me  might  have  convinced  me  would  be  acceptable." 
With  extreme  reverence  she  wrote  to  Franklin  that  "  it 
is  not  Profanity  to  compare  you  to  our  Blessed  Saviour 
who  Employed  much  of  his  time  while  on  Earth  in 
doing  good  to  the  body's  as  well  as  souls  of  men  &  I 
am  shure  I  think  the  compareson  just." 

This  adoration  rs  the  more  excusable  when  Franklin's 
services  to  her  are  weighed.  Her  husband's  death  left 
her  a  large  family  to  rear,  and  but  for  Benjamin's  con- 
stant eking  out  of  her  means  it  wou'd  have  fared  hard 
with  the  widow.  She  told  her  brother  that  her  happi- 
ness was  derived  from  "  yr  Bounty  without  wich  I  must 
have  been  distressed  as  much  as  many  others,"  and 
assured  him  that  she  could  not  "  find  expression  suitable 
to  acknowledge  my  gratitude ;  how  I  am  by  my  dear 
brother  enabled  to  live  at  ease  in  my  old  age."  "  My 
self  and  children  have  always  been  a  tax  upon  you," 
she  wrote  to  him,  "  but  your  great  and  uncommon  good- 
ness has  carried  you  cheerfully  under  it."  Nor  was 
Franklin's  charity  an  enforced  one. 

17 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"  You  always  tell  me  that  you  live  comfortably,"  he  chided, 
"  but  I  sometimes  suspect  that  you  may  be  too  unwilling  to 
acquaint  me  with  any  of  your  difficulties,  from  an  apprehension 
of  giving  me  pain.  I  wish  you  would  let  me  know  precisely 
your  situation,  that  I  may  better  proportion  my  assistance  to 
your  wants.  .  .  .  Lest  you  should  be  straightened  during  the 
present  winter  I  send  you  fifty  dollars." 

And  not  satisfied  that  she  acknowledged  all  her  needs, 
he  questioned  other  relatives : 

"  How  has  my  poor  old  sister  gone  through  the  winter  ?  Tell 
me  frankly  whether  she  lives  comfortably  or  is  pinched.  I  am 
afraid  she  is  too  cautious  of  acquainting  me  of  her  difficulties, 
though  I  am  always  ready  and  willing  to  relieve  her,  when  I 
am  acquainted  with  them." 

Jane  and  Benjamin  outlived  all  their  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  Franklin,  upon  the  death  of  one  of  the  last, 
said  to  her :  "  Of  these  thirteen  there  now  remain  but 
three.  As  our  number  diminishes,  let  our  affection  to 
each  other  rather  increase."  In  one  of  her  later  letters 
the  sister  recurred  to  this,  writing  :  "  You  once  told  me, 
my  dear  brother,  that  as  our  number  of  brethren  and 
sisters  lessened  the  affection  of  those  of  us  that  re- 
mained should  increase  to  each  other.  You  and  I  are 
now  left ;  my  affection  for  you  has  always  been  so  great 
I  see  no  room  for  increase,  and  you  have  manifested 
yours  for  me  in  such  large  measure  that  I  have  no 
reason  to  suspect  its  strength."  Jane  Mecom  alone 
of  Josiah  Franklin's  seventeen  children  survived  the 
famous  son,  and  in  his  will  Franklin  left  to  her  "  a 
house  and  lot  I  have  in  Unity  Street,  Boston,"  gave 
her  "  the  yearly  sum  of  fifty  pounds  sterling,"  and  left 
a  small  sum  of  money  to  her  descendants. 

18 


FAMILY   RELATIONS 

"  He  who  takes  a  wife,  takes  care,"  runs  an  aphorism 
that  Poor  Richard  thought  fit  to  embody  in  his  Alma- 
nac ;  and  Franklin,  from  his  own  experience,  might  have 
added,  with  the  humorous  quirk  he  so  often  used,  "  of 
his  wife's  relatives."  When  he  took  unto  himself  a 
helpmeet,  he  brought  to  live  with  them  her  mother, 
who  henceforth  conducted  her  trade  at  his  printing- 
shop,  making  known  to  her  customers,  through  adver- 
tisements in  her  son-in-law's  newspaper,  that  "  The 


Widow  READ,  removed  from  the 

upper  End  of  Highftreet  to  the  New  Prjriting-Cffice 
near  the  Marker,  continues  to  make  and  icll  her  well- 
known  Ointment  for  the  ITCH,  with  which  flic  has  cured 
abundance  of  People  in  and  about  this  City  for  many  Years 
paft.  It  is  always  effe&ual  for  that  purpofe,  and  never  tails 
to  perform  the  Cure  fpeedily.  It  aifo  kills  or  drives  away 
all  Sorts  of  Lice  in  once  or  twice  ufing.  It  has  no  orfenfive 
Smell,  but  rather  a  pleafant  one  ;  and  may  be  ufed  without 
the  leaft  Apprehension  of  Danger,  even  to  a  fucking  Infant,, 
being  perfeftly  innocent  and  fafe.  Price  2  s.  a  Gaily  pot 
containing  an  Ounce  ;  whiclj  is  fufficient  to  remove  the  moil 
inveterate  Itch,  and  render  the  Skin  clear  and  fmooth. 

She  alfb  continues  to  make  and  fell  her  excel  km  Family 
Safoe  or  Ointment,  for  Burns  or  Scalds,  (Price  I  s.  an  Ounce) 
and  feveral  other  Sorts  of  Ointments  and  Salves  as  ufual. 

At  the  fame  Place  may  be  had  Lockyers  P////,  at  3  d.  a  Pill . 


Widow  Read  [had]  removed  from  the  upper  end  of 
High-street,  to  the  New  Printing  Office  near  the  Mar- 
ket," where  she  sold  "  ointments  "  for  various  ills  that 
might  have  been  avoided  by  a  better  patronage  of  the 
Franklin  "  crown  soap." 

On  the  death  of  Mrs.  Read,  he  wrote  his  wife : 


THE    MANY-SIDED    FRANKLIN 

"  I  condole  with  you  most  sincerely  on  the  death  of  our  good 
mother,  being  extremely  sensible  of  the  distress  and  affliction  it 
must  have  thrown  you  into.  Your  comfort  will  be,  that  no 
care  was  wanting  on  your  part  towards  her,  and  that  she  had 
lived  as  long  as  this  life  could  afford  her  any  rational  enjoy- 
ment. It  is,  I  am  sure,  a  satisfaction  to  me,  that  1  cannot 
charge  myself  with  having  ever  failed  in  one  instance  of  duty 
and  respect  to  her  during  the  many  years  that  she  called  me 
son." 


A  brother  and  sister  of  his  wife  also  lived  for  a  time 
with  Franklin,  and  he  aided  the  former  to  get  a  govern- 
ment office.  There  was  some  friction,  however,  with 
another  of  her  relatives.  At  first  Franklin  told  him 
that  his  "  visits  never  had  but  one  thing  disagreeable  in 
them  ;  that  is  they  are  always  too  short  "  ;  but  presently 
"  Jemmy  "  Read  endeavored  to  get  a  "  small  office  from 
me,  which  I  took  .  .  .  amiss,"  and  they  ceased  to  be 
"  on  speaking  terms,"  while  the  ill  feeling  was  deepened 
by  Franklin's  becoming  the  agent  to  enforce  a  business 
contract  in  which  Read  proved  to  be  delinquent,  if  not 
dishonest. 

Franklin's  eldest  son,  William,  was  born  out  of  wed- 
lock, but  so  far  as  lay  within  the  father's  power  he 
repaired  the  wrong  to  which,  separated  from  the  influ- 
ence of  both  father  and  mother,  the  young  fellow  had 
let  his  "  hard-to-be-governed  passion  of  youth"  lead 
him.  The  boy  was  reared  in  Franklin's  home,  being 
openly  acknowledged  and  treated  as  a  son.  A  friend 
who  saw  much  of  the  family  declared  that  "  his  father 
.  .  .  is  at  the  same  time  his  friend,  his  brother,  his 
intimate,  and  easy  companion,"  a  systematic  kindness 
for  which  William  Franklin  thanked  his  father,  saying: 

20 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

"  I  am  extremely  obliged  to  you  for  your  Care  in  sup- 
plying me  with  Money,  and  shall  ever  have  a  grateful 
Sense  of  that  with  the  other  numberless  Indulgences 
1  have  received  from  your  paternal  Affection."  A 
pleasant  glimpse  of  one  parental  indulgence  is  revealed 
by  an  advertisement  in  the  father's  newspaper : 

"  Stray'd,  about  two  Months  ago,  from  the  Northern  Liberties 
of  this  City,  a  small  bay  Mare,  branded  IW  on  the  near  Shoul- 
der and  Buttock.  She  being  but  little  and  barefootted,  cannot 
be  supposed  to  be  gone  far ;  therefore  if  any  of  the  Town-Boys 
find  her  and  bring  her  to  the  Subscriber,  they  shall,  for  their 
Trouble,  have  the  Liberty  to  ride  her  when  they  please,  from 

"  WILLIAM  FRANKLIN. 

"  Philad.  June  17.  1742." 

As  the  lad  grew  up,  the  parent  came  to  take  positive 
pride  in  him,  writing:  "Will  is  now  nineteen  years  of 
age,  a  tall,  proper  youth,  and  much  of  a  beau."  This 
opinion  was  echoed  by  William  Strahan,  who  declared  : 
"  Your  son  I  really  think  one  of  the  prettiest  young 
gentlemen  I  ever  knew  from  America,"  proving  that 
Franklin's  praise  was  not  wholly  due  to  the  parental 
fondness  satirized  in  Poor  Richard's  lines: 

"  Where  yet  was  ever  found  the  mother 
Who  'd  change  her  booby  for  another  ?  " 

As  soon  as  William  was  old  enough,  Franklin  obtained 
for  him  a  commission  in  the  provincial  forces,  in  which 
he  served  till  "  peace  cut  off  his  prospect  of  advance- 
ment in  that  way."  Through  the  same  influence  he 
was  then  made  postmaster  of  Philadelphia,  and  next 
clerk  of  the  General  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania,  mean- 
time having  been  entered  as  a  student  of  law  at  the 

21 


THE    MANY-SIDED    FRANKLIN 


GOVERNOR    WILLIAM    FRANKLIN,    BY    FLAXMAX. 

From  a  medallion  in  possession  of  Sir  J.  Lumsden  Propert. 

Inns  of  Court  in  London.  When  he  accompanied  his 
father  to  England,  in  1757,  to  complete  his  title  to 
practise  as  a  barrister,  Franklin  sought  to  bring  about 
a  marriage  between  him  and  Miss  Mary  Stevenson,  an 
English  girl  to  whom  he  himself  became  much  attached 
during  this  visit.  The  son,  however,  chose  otherwise, 

22 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

and  finally,  with  his  father's  "  consent  and  approba- 
tion," he  married,  so  Franklin  states,  "  a  very  agree- 
able West  Indian  lady."  Meantime,  William  Franklin 
had  secured  the  appointment  as  governor  of  New  Jersey, 
a  selection  much  disrelished  at  first  by  the  province,  and 
which,  it  has  been  suggested,  was  given  to  the  son  in 
the  hope  of  winning  the  father  to  the  government  side. 
This,  it  is  needless  to  say,  it  did  not  effect;  but  it  at 
least  served  to  seduce  the  son,  and  as  the  rift  between 
the  mother-country  and  the  colonies  widened,  the  father 
accused  him  of  having  become  "  a  thorough  govern- 
ment man."  When  the  English  government  removed 
Franklin  from  his  postmaster-generalship,  in  1774,  he 
appealed  to  the  son  to  resign  his  office ;  and  on  his 
refusal  to  resent  the  disgrace  which  his  superiors  had 
sought  to  inflict  on  the  father,  the  latter  wrote  to  him 
bitterly  :  "  You  who  are  a  thorough  courtier,  see  every- 
thing with  government  eyes."  William's  loyalty  to  the 
English  government  resulted  not  only  in  a  complete 
break  with  his  father,  and  in  his  imprisonment  by  the 
Continental  Congress  as  an  active  and  dangerous  Tory, 
but  forced  him  eventually  to  leave  America  and  take  up 
his  residence  in  England.  On  the  conclusion  of  peace, 
a  feeble  attempt  at  a  renewal  of  the  old-time  relation 
was  made.  Franklin  wrote  his  son  :  "  I  am  glad  to  find 
you  desire  to  revive  the  affectionate  intercourse  that 
formerly  existed  between  us.  It  would  be  very  agree- 
able to  me  ;  indeed,  nothing  has  hurt  me  so  much,  and 
filled  me  with  such  keen  sensations,  as  to  find  myself 
deserted  in  my  old  age  by  my  only  son  ;  and  not  only 
deserted,  but  to  find  him  taking  up  arms  against  me  in 

23 


THE   MANY-SIDED    FRANKLIN 

a  cause  wherein  my  good  fame,  fortune,  and  life  were 
all    at    stake."     Yet,    in    expressing    his    sorrow    thus 


MEMORIAL    TABLET    TO    MRS.   WILLIAM    FRANKLIN. 
In  the  chancel  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  New  York. 

strongly,  the  father  added :  "  I  ought  not  to  blame  you 
for  differing  in  sentiment  with  me  in  public  affairs," 
and  "  I  should  be  glad  to  see  you  when  convenient." 

24 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

The  two  met  for  a  brief  moment  at  Southampton,  in 
1785,  when  Franklin  was  returning  from  France  to 
America.  But  the  endeavor  to  revive  the  old  relation 
seems  to  have  been  unsuccessful ;  they  never  made 
further  attempts  to  see  each  other,  and  in  Franklin's 
will,  drawn  up  three  years  after  this  meeting,  though  he 
left  his  son  certain  property  in  Nova  Scotia,  he  stated  : 
"  The  part  he  acted  against  me  in  the  late  war,  which  is 
of  public  notoriety,  will  account  for  my  leaving  him  no 
more  of  an  estate  he  endeavoured  to  deprive  me  of.." 

The  affection  which  Franklin  no  longer  gave  to  his 
son  he  transferred  to  William's  illegitimate  child,  assum- 
ing from  the  first  the  relation  of  father  to  him.  Under 
his  superintendence  the  boy  was  placed  at  school  near 
London,  and  during  the  many  years  of  Franklin's  stay 
in  that  city  he  had  the  lad  often  to  visit  him,  telling  the 
father,  on  one  occasion :  "  Temple  has  been  at  home 
with  us  during  the  Christmas  Vacation  from  School. 
He  improves  continually,  and  more  and  more  engages 
the  regard  of  all  that  are  acquainted  with  him  by  his 
pleasing,  sensible,  manly  Behaviour."  At  another 
time,  in  making  up  an  account  with  William  Franklin, 
and  noting  that  "  the  heaviest  Part  is  the  Maintenance 
&  Education  of  Temple,"  the  grandfatherly  pride  ex- 
pressed itself  in  the  assertion :  "  But  that  his  friends 
will  not  grudge  when  they  see  him."  On  Franklin's 
return  to  America,  in  1775,  he  brought  the  lad  with 
him,  and  the  boy  went  to  live  with  his  father,  taking  at 
the  same  time  the  family  name,  in  place  of  that  of  Wil- 
liam Temple — a  change  pleasing  to  at  least  one  friend,  who 
wrote  Franklin :  "  I  rejoice  to  hear  he  has  the  addition 

25 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

of  Franklin,  which  I  always  knew  he  had  some  right  to, 
and  I  hope  will  prove  worthy  the  honorable  Appellation." 
Temple  Franklin,  as  he  was  customarily  called  hence- 
forth, returned  soon  to  live  with  his  grandfather,  in  order 
to  attend  college ;  but  the  plan  was  interfered  with  by 
Franklin's  being  sent  to  France  in  1776,  and  his  desire 
to  have  the  boy  go  with  him.  Once  in  Paris,  the  young 
fellow  became  Franklin's  private  secretary,  and  there 
are  frequent  references  to  him  in  that  capacity  in  Frank- 
lin's letters,  as,  for  instance :  "  My  grandson,  whom  you 
may  remember  when  a  saucy  boy  at  school,"  is  "  my 
amanuensis  in  writing  the  within  letter."  This  employ- 
ment roused  sharp  criticism  both  from  Franklin's  fellow- 
commissioners  and  from  members  of  Congress,  based 
partly  on  the  questionableness  of  giving  the  position  to 
a  relative,  partly  on  the  lad's  youthfulness,  and  partly 
on  the  fact  that  he  was  the  son  of  an  open  and  avowed 
Tory.  A  motion  was  even  offered  in  Congress  that  he 
should  be  dismissed,  which  so  exasperated  Franklin  that 
he  declared  warmly  : 

"  I  am  surprised  to  hear  that  my  grandson,  Temple  Franklin, 
being  with  me,  should  be  an  objection  against  me,  and  that 
there  is  a  cabal  for  removing  him.  Methinks  it  is  rather  some 
merit  that  I  have  rescued  a  valuable  young  man  from  the 
danger  of  being  a  Tory,  and  fixed  him  in  honest  republican 
Whig  principles ;  as  I  think,  from  the  integrity  of  his  disposi- 
tion, his  industry,  his  early  sagacity,  and  uncommon  abilities 
for  business,  he  may  in  time  become  of  great  service  to  his 
country.  It  is  enough  that  I  have  lost  my  son ;  would  they 
add  my  grandson  ?  An  old  man  of  seventy,  I  undertook  a 
winter  voyage  at  the  command  of  the  Congress,  and  for  the 
public  service,  with  no  other  attendant  to  take  care  of  me.  I 
am  continued  here  in  a  foreign  country,  where,  if  I  am  sick, 
his  filial  attention  comforts  me,  and  if  I  die,  I  have  a  child  to 

26 


WILLIAM    TEMPLE    FRANKLIN. 
From  a  medallion  by  Flaxman. 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

close  my  eyes  and  take  care  of  my  remains.  His  dutiful  be- 
havior towards  me,  and  his  diligence  and  fidelity  in  business, 
are  both  pleasing  and  useful  to  me.  His  conduct,  as  my 
private  secretary,  has  been  unexceptionable,  and  I  am  confi- 
dent the  Congress  will  never  think  of  separating  us." 

A  mere  retention  in  this  minor  office  did  not  content 
Franklin,  and  he  lost  no  opportunity  in  endeavoring  to 
secure  his  grandson  political  preferment.  In  1 783  he 
made  personal  appeals  to  each  one  of  the  Peace  Com- 
missioners to  have  Temple  made  secretary  of  the 
commission.  He  wrote  to  the  Continental  Congress, 
asking, ''as  a  favour  to  me,"  that  the  "young  gentle- 
man" should  be  made  a  secretary  of  legation,  or  a 
charge.  To  reinforce  this  application,  he  wrote  to 
members  known  to  him,  making  the  same  request,  and 
JefTerson  tells  us  that  "the  Doctor"  was  "extremely 
wounded  by  the  inattention  of  Congress  to  his  applica- 
tion for  him.  He  expects  something  to  be  done  as  a 
reward  for  his  services."  Again,  he  used  all  his  influ- 
ence to  have  the  grandson  made  secretary  of  the  Federal 
Convention  in  1787,  and  was  keenly  disappointed  when 
that  body  selected  some  one  else.  No  sooner  was  the 
national  government  organized  than  he  applied  to  Wash- 
ington for  some  office  for  the  young  man,  and  seriously 
resented  a  refusal  to  gratify  his  wish.  In  the  meantime 
he  had  already  in  effect  purchased  and  given  to  Temple 
his  father's  farm  in  New  Jersey,  valued  at  four  thousand 
pounds  sterling,  and  in  his  will  he  left  him  other  property, 
including  his  library,  and  made  him  his  literary  executor. 

In  Franklin's  paper,  the  "  Pennsylvania  Gazette," 
under  date  of  December  13,  1736,  appeared-the  follow- 
ing advertisement : 

28 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

UNDERSTANDING  'tis  a  current 

Report,  that  my  Son  franc! /,  who  died  lately  of  the 
Small  Pox,  had  ft  by  Inoculation  ;  and  being  defired  tofati&fy 
the  Publick  in  that  Particular,;  indfmuch  as  force  People 
arc,  by  that  Report  (join'd  with  oriieis  oi-the  like  kind,  and 
perhaps  equally  ground  jefls)  deter  *d  fiom  having  that  Opera- 
tton  perfoim'd  on  their  Children,  I  do  hereby  fir.ceiely  de- 
clare, that  he  was  not  inoculated,  but  recfiv'dthe  Diftempef 
in  the  common  Way  of  Infection:  And  rftsppoie  ihe  Re- 
port could  only  arife  from  it§  being  mv  known  CJ^tnion,  that 
Inoculation  was  a  fafc  and  beneficial  Practice  ;  and  from  my 
having  faid  among  my  Acquaintance,  that  1  intended  to 
have  my  Child  inoculated,  av  fbrfn  as  he  ihon'd  have  re- 
covered fufficient  Strength  from  a  Fiux  with  uhich  he  had 
been  long  afHi&ed.  B.  FRANK-LI& 


The  son  thus  referred  to,  Francis  Folger,  who  died 
when  only  four  years  of  age,  seems  to  have  been  his 
father's  favorite.  Long  after,  in  referring  to  a  grand- 
son, who  was  declared  to  be  "  an  uncommonly  fine 
boy,"  Franklin  said  that  the  child  "  brings  often  afresh 
to  my  mind  the  idea  of  my  son  Franky,  though  now 
dead  thirty-six  years,  whom  I  have  seldom  since  seen 
equalled  in  everything,  and  whom  to  this  day  I  cannot 
think  of  without  a  sigh." 

The  last  of  Franklin's  three  children  was  his  daughter 
Sarah,  born  in  1743,  in  whom  her  father  took  uncon- 
cealed pride,  assuring  his  mother  that  "  your  grand- 
daughter is  the  greatest  lover  of  her  book  and  school 
of  any  child  I  ever  knew,  and  is  very  dutiful  to  her 
mistress  as  well  as  to  us."  Half  jokingly,  Franklin 
proposed  a  match,  when  she  was  a  child  of  six,  between 
her  and  the  son  of  his  friend  William  Strahan,  and,  the 

29 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

offer  being  accepted  in  the  same  vein,  he  frequently  sent 
word  of  her  progress  to  "my  son-in-law."  "Please 
to  acquaint  him  that  his  spouse  grows  finely,"  he  re- 
quested, continuing,  "  and  will  probably  have  an  agree- 
able person  ;  that  with  the  best  natural  disposition  in  the 


FRANCIS    FOLGER    FRANKLIN. 
Younger  son  of  Benjamin  Franklin. 

world,  she  discovers  daily  the  seeds  and  tokens  of  in- 
dustry, economy,  and,  in  short,  of  every  female  virtue, 
which  her  parents  will  endeavour  to  cultivate  for  him." 
Six  years  later  he  said :  "  Our  daughter  Sally  is  indeed 
a  very  good  girl,  affectionate,  dutiful  and  industrious, 
has  one  of  the  best  hearts,  and  though  not  a  wit,  is,  for 
one  of  her  years,  by  no  means  deficient  in  understand- 
ing." The  imposed  task  of  cultivating  simple  habits 

30 


FAMILY   RELATIONS 

of  frugality  was  not  an  altogether  easy  one,  the  girl's 
mother  complaining  that  "  Sally  had  nothing  fit  to 
wear  suitable  "  for  the  Philadelphia  society  into  which 
she  began  to  be  drawn,  while  Sally  herself  wrote  "  to 
ask  my  Papa  for  some  things  that  I  cannot  get  here 
...  't  is  some  gloves,  both  white  and  mourning,  the 
last  to  be  of  the  largest  "  ;  and  he  seems  to  have  yielded 
to  the  double  pressure  for  finery,  for  the  daughter 
presently  thanked  him,  and  said  that  "  nothing  was  ever 
more  admired  than  my  new  gown."  Yet  at  no  time 
did  Franklin  encourage  this  desire  for  dress,  and  when, 
in  i  779,  Sarah  asked  him  to  send  her  some  clothes  from 
Paris,  he  wrote  so  reprovingly  of  her  extravagance 
that  she  replied  : 

"  But  how  could  my  dear  Papa  give  me  so  severe  a  repri- 
mand for  wishing  a  little  finery.  He  would  not,  I  am  sure,  if 
he  knew  how  much  I  have  felt  it.  ...  You  would  have 
been  the  last  person,  I  am  sure,  to  have  wished  to  see  me 
dressed  with  singularity ;  though  I  never  loved  dress  so  much 
as  to  wish  to  be  particularly  fine,  yet  I  never  will  go  out  when 
I  cannot  appear  so  as  to  do  credit  to  my  family  and  husband." 

Even  in  death  Franklin  consistently  sought  to  teach 
her  simplicity  and  economy,  for  in  bequeathing  to  his 
daughter  "  the  king  of  France's  picture,  set  with  four 
hundred  and  eight  diamonds,"  which  had  been  presented 
to  him  upon  his  leaving  the  French  court,  he  requested 
"  that  she  would  not  form  any  of  those  diamonds  into 
ornaments,  either  for  herself  or  daughters,  and  thereby 
introduce  or  countenance  the  expensive,  vain  and 
useless  fashion  of  wearing  jewels  in  this  country." 
Throughout  his  whole  life  the  father  endeavored  to 

3' 


THE    MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

train  his  child,  in  his  own  words,  so  that  "  she  will, 
in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  be  worth  a  great  deal  of 
money,  and,  consequently,  a  great  fortune,"  to  her 
husband. 

The  match  with  the  Strahan  boy  never  got  further 
than  the  wishes  of  the  parents,  and  presently  Franklin 
was  notified  that  his  daughter  had  chosen  Richard 
Bache,  a  Philadelphia  merchant,  of  whom  Franklin 
knew  "  very  little,"  but  of  whom  he  hoped  that  "  His 
expectations  are  not  great  of  any  fortune  to  be  had 
with  our  daughter  before  our  death  "  ;  and  then  ex- 
plained : 

"  I  can  only  say  that  if  he  proves  a  good  husband  to  her  and 
a  good  son  to  me,  he  shall  find  me  as  good  a  father  as  I  can 
be ;  but  at  present  I  suppose  you  would  agree  with  me  that 
we  cannot  do  more  than  fit  her  out  handsomely  in  clothes  and 
furniture,  not  exceeding  in  the  whole  five  hundred  pounds  of 
value.  For  the  rest,  they  must  depend,  as  you  and  I  did,  on 
their  own  industry  and  care,  as  what  remains  in  our  hands  will 
be  barely  sufficient  for  our  support,  and  not  enough  for  them, 
when  it  comes  to  be  divided  at  our  decease." 

Having  made  this  explanation,  Franklin  left  the  deci- 
sion entirely  to  his  \vife,  who  gave  her  consent  to  the 
marriage.  Yet  the  course  of  true  love  did  not  run  al- 
together smoothly,  for  Bache  shortly  became  bankrupt 
in  his  business,  upon  which  the  father  advised  a  post- 
ponement of  the  wedding.  He  was,  however,  by  some 
influence,  speedily  won  over;  but  the  marriage  was  not 
favorably  viewed  by  some,  for  William  Franklin  wrote 
that  "  Mrs.  Franklin  became  angry  with  our  friends  for 
not  approving  the  match,"  and  there  even  seems  to 
have  been  some  ill  feeling  within  the  family  over  it. 

32 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 

Once  his  daughter  was  wedded,  the  father  was  not 
wholly  consistent  in  compelling  the  young  people  to 
depend  entirely  on  themselves.  He  gave  Bache  two 
hundred  pounds  toward  setting  him  up  in  business, 


RICHARD    BACHE. 

From  an  original  painting  by  Hoppner,  1790,  in  possession  of 
Miss  Constantia  Abert. 


very  quickly  found  a  berth  for  him  in  the  post-office,— 
which  ever  proved  in  Franklin's  hands  to  have  an 
elastic  capacity  as  regarded  his  relatives, — presently 
made  him  Deputy  Postmaster-General,  and  for  many 
years  let  the  couple  live  in  his  house  in  Philadelphia, 

33 


THE    MANY-SIDED    FRANKLIN 

"at  no  expense  for  rent."  Furthermore,  when  Con- 
gress removed  Bache  from  his  office  of  Postmaster- 
General,  and  he  was  compelled  once  more  to  start 
in  business,  Franklin,  with  questionable  delicacy,  con- 
sidering his  official  position  in  France,  exerted  in- 
fluence to  secure  him  business  from  various  French  com- 
mercial houses.  Mrs.  Bache,  according  to  Marbois, 
took  a  prominent  part  in  the  Revolution  "  in  exertions 
to  rouse  the  zeal  of  the  Pennsylvania  ladies ;  and  she 
made  on  this  occasion  such  a  happy  use  of  the  eloquence 
which  you  know  she  possesses  that  a  large  part  of  the 
American  army  was  provided  with  shirts  bought  with 
their  money  or  made  with  their  own  hands  "  ;  and  the 
Frenchman  continued :  "  If  there  are  in  Europe  any 
women  who  need  a  model  of  attachment  to  domestic 
duties  and  love  for  their  country,  Mrs.  Bache  may  be 
pointed  out  to  them  as  such."  The  Marquis  de  Chas- 
tellux  echoed  this  praise  by  a  reference  which  spoke  of 
her  as  "  simple  in  her  manners";  'Mike  her  respecta- 
ble father,  she  possesses  his  benevolence."  She  is 
said,  furthermore,  to  have  much  resembled  Franklin, 
and  was  described  by  Manasseh  Cutler,  in  1787,  as  "  a 
very  gross  and  rather  homely  lady."  On  Franklin's 
final  return  to  America,  "  My  son-in-law  came  in  a 
boat  for  us ;  we  landed  at  Market  Street  wharf,  where 
we  were  received  by  a  crowd  of  people  with  huzzas, 
and  accompanied  with  acclamations  quite  to  my  door." 
During  the  few  remaining  years  of  his  life  the  Baches 
and  he  made  one  family,  and  the  father  told  a  friend 
that  "  I,  too,  have  got  into  my  niche  after  being  kept 
out  of  it  twenty-four  years  by  foreign  employments," 

34 


FAMILY   RELATIONS 

and  "  am  again  surrounded  by  my  friends,  with  a  large 
family  of  grandchildren  about  my  knees,  an  affectionate, 
good  daughter  and  son-in-law  to  take  care  of  me." 

Of  the  Bache  children,  the  eldest,  and  his  namesake, 
was  the  most  endeared  to  Franklin,  and  even  before  he 
had  ever  seen  the  boy,  his  frequent  inquiries  showed  his 
interest  in  him ;  indeed,  his  American  correspondents 
quickly  learned  that  they  could  write  nothing  which 
would  please  him  more  than  news  of  the  "  Little  King 
Bird,"  or  "your  young  Hercules,"  as  he  was  called. 
"  I  came  to  town  with  Betsey,"  wrote  William  Franklin 
to  his  father,  "  in  order  to  stand  for  my  young  nephew. 
He  is  not  so  fat  and  lusty  as  some  children  at  his  time 
are,  but  he  is  altogether  a  pretty  little  fellow  and  im- 
proves in  his  looks  every  day.  .  Mr.  Baynton  stood  as 
proxy  for  you  and  named  Benj'n  Franklin  and  my 
mother  and  Betsey  were  the  godmothers."  His  wife's 
letters,  too,  constantly  brought  the  sponsor  news  of  the 
godchild.  Franklin  welcomed  her  news,  telling  her :  "  I 
am  much  pleased  with  your  little  histories  of  our  grand- 
son and  happy  in  thinking  how  much  amusement  he 
must  afford  you,"  and  confessing  that  they  made  "  me 
long  to  be  at  home  to  play  with  Ben."  He  rarely 
failed  to  send  his  love  to  the  child,  and  often  "  some 
little  things  for  Benny  Boy,"  and  once  he  complained 
that  "  you  have  so  used  me  to  have  something  pretty 
about  the  boy  that  I  am  a  little  disappointed  in  rinding 
nothing  more  of  him  than  that  he  is  gone  up  to  Bur- 
lington. Pray  give  me  in  your  next  as  usual  a  little  of 
his  history."  At  a  dinner  in  London  he  reports  that 
"  the  chief  toast  of  the  day  was  Master  Benjamin  Bache, 

35 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

which  the  venerable  old  lady  began  in  a  tumbler  of 
mountain.  The  Bishop's  lady  politely  added,  r  And 
that  he  may  be  as  good  a  man  as  his  grandfather.'  I 
said  I  hoped  he  would  be  mucJi  better.  The  Bishop, 
still  more  complaisant  than  his  lady,  said,  '  We  will 
compound  the  matter  and  be  contented  if  he  should  not 
prove  quite  so  good.' ' 

When  Franklin  went  to  France  in  1776,  he  took  this 
grandson  with  him,  to  "  give  him  a  little  French  lan- 
guage and  address."  With  still  other  ends  in  view,  so 
soon  as  he  was  settled  in  Paris,  he  "  sent  him  to  finish 
his  education  at  Geneva,"  as  "  I  intend  him  for  a  Pres- 
byterian as  well  as  a  republican."  Here  the  boy  re- 
mained four  years,  and  then  returned  to  live  with  his 
grandfather,  who  wrote  the  mother :  "  I  have  had  a 
great  deal  of  pleasure  in  Ben.  He  is  a  good  honest 
lad,  and  will  make,  I  think,  a  valuable  man."  "  He 
gains  daily  upon  my  affection,"  and  "  we  love  him  very 
much."  Young  Bache  came  to  America  with  his  grand- 
father, and  by  his  aid  was  established  as  a  printer, 
Franklin  supplying  all  the  equipment  for  the  office, 
which  he  left  him  in  his  will,  together  with  other  prop- 
erty. In  his  behalf,  also,  he  asked  Washington  for  some 
public  office,  an  application  which,  by  being  refused, 
shared  the  same  fate  as  that  he  had  made  for  his  other 
grandson.  It  was  the  common  feeling  of  the  time 
that  Franklin  had  used  civil  office  to  serve  his  family 
more  than  to  serve  the  public,  and  so  there  was  suffi- 
cient prejudice  to  make  exclusion  of  his  relatives  almost 
a  policy  with  the  new  government.  This  discrimination, 
in  time,  led  to  ill  feeling,  and  eventually  Benjamin 

36 


FAMILY    RELATIONS 


MRS.    RICHARD    BACHK    (SARAH    FRANKLIN"). 
Daughter  of  Benjamin  Franklin. 

Franklin  Bache  became  the  standard-bearer  of  the  jour- 
nalists who  abused  Washington. 

If  Benjamin,  from  this  long  intimacy,  was  his  favorite 
of  the  Bache  children,  Franklin  was  unquestionably  fond 

37 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

of  them  all,  though  the  rest  were  too  young  to  have 
been  more  than  playthings  to  him.  In  writing  of  his 
home  toward  the  end  of  his  life,  he  described  his  plea- 
sure in  "  a  dutiful  and  affectionate  daughter,  who, 
together  with  her  husband  and  six  children,  compose 
my  family.  The  children  are  all  promising,  and  even 
the  youngest,  who  is  but  four  years  old,  contributes  to 
my  amusement "  ;  and  only  two  years  before  his  death 
he  noted  "  the  addition  of  a  little  good-natured  girl, 
whom  I  begin  to  love  as  well  as  the  rest." 

Nor  was  the  affection  of  the  grandfather  unrecip- 
rocated, one  of  Franklin's  callers  recording  that  Mrs. 
Bache  "  had  three  of  her  children  about  her,  over  whom 
she  seemed  to  have  no  kind  of  command,  but  who 
appeared  to  be  excessively  fond  of  their  Grandpapa.0 
Franklin  himself  tells  a  story  of  a  child  that  is  worth 
repeating  as  showing  the  grandsire's  feeling.  His  wife 
had  written  of  Mrs.  Bache's  over-severe  punishment  of 
one  of  the  children,  and  the  husband  had  replied : 

"It  was  very  prudently  done  of  you  not  to  interfere  when 
his  mother  thought  fit  to  correct  him ;  which  pleased  me  the 
more,  as  I  feared,  from  your  fondness  of  him,  that  he  would 
be  too  much  humored,  and  perhaps  spoiled.  There  is  a  story 
of  two  little  boys  in  the  street ;  one  was  crying  bitterly ;  the 
other  came  to  him  to  ask  what  was  the  matter.  '  I  have 
been,'  says  he,  '  for  a  pennyworth  of  vinegar,  and  I  have 
broken  the  glass,  and  spilled  the  vinegar,  and  my  mother  will 
whip  me.'  '  No,  she  won't  whip  you,'  says  the  other.  *  In- 
deed she  will,'  says  he.  '  What,'  says  the  other,  '  ha'n't  you 
then  got  ne'er  a  grandmother  ? ' ' 

At  seventeen  years  of  age  the  runaway  apprentice 
had  left  his  family ;  from  that  time  he  saw  but  little  of 


FAMILY   RELATIONS 

them.  As  agent  for  Pennsylvania,  and  as  minister  to 
France,  Franklin  was,  save  for  two  short  home-comings, 
continuously  in  Europe  from  1757  to  1785,  and  neces- 
sarily separated  from  his  wife,  and,  except  as  already 
narrated,  from  his  children  and  grandchildren.  Yet  of 
all  his  kith  and  kin  he  was  undoubtedly  truly  fond,  not 
merely  as  relatives,  but  as  companions,  and  not  to  one 
does  he  seem  to  have  been  lacking  in  interest  and 
kindness. 


GRAVESTONE    OF    FRANCIS    FOLGER    FRANKLIN. 

In  the  Franklin  burial  plot  in  Christ  Church  Cemetery, 
Philadelphia. 


39 


FULL-LENGTH    PORTRAIT   OF   BENJAMIN 


From  a  copperplate,  after  a  drawing  by  L.  C.  de  Carmontelle. 
collection  of  Clarence  S.  Bement,  Esq. 


FRANKLIN. 

In  the 


BIRTHPLACE  Of  FRANKUN- 

JN  MILK  STREET.  JAN.  6. /7DJ-6.0.S. 


II 


PHYSIQUE:    THEORIES    AND    APPETITES 

IN -his  autobiography  Frankjin  relates  that  his  father 
"  had  an  excellent  constitution  of  body,  was  of 
middle  stature,  but  well  set,  and  very  strong,"  qualities 
all  inherited  by  the  son.  From  the  maternal  side  the 
boy  derived  "likewise  an  excellent  constitution";  and 
he  asserts  that  <(  I  never  knew  either  my  father  or 
mother  to  have  any  sickness  but  that  of  which  they 
dy'd,  he  at  89,  and  she  at  85  years  of  age." 

This  heritage  of  soundness  and  strength  was  a  large 
element  in  the  success  Franklin  achieved.  He  himself 
took  pride  that  in  the  printing-office  where  he  worked 
during  his  first  London  sojourn,  "  on  occasion,  I  carried 
up  and  down  stairs  a  large  form  of  types  in  each  hand, 
when  others  carried  but  one  in  both  hands."  After  he 
set  up  as  a  printer  for  himself,  he  often  worked  till  far 

41 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

into  the  night,  a  diligence  which  led  a  Philadelphian  to 
remark  that  "  the  industry  of  that  Franklin  is  superior 
to  anything  I  ever  saw  of  the  kind ;  I  see  him  still  at 
work  when  I  go  home  from  my  club,  and  he  is  at  work 
again  before  his  neighbors  are  out  of  bed."  Even  after 
the  necessity  for  severe  labor  was  over,  in  his  "  scheme 
of  employment  for  the  24  hours  of  a  natural  day,"  he 
allotted  for  sleep  only  six  hours,  or  those  between  ten 
and  four. 

If  his  constitutional  and  muscular  vigor  enabled  him 
thus  to  tax  his  body,  it  did  not  save  him  from  the  ill- 
nesses his  parents  had  escaped.  In  1727,  so  he  states, 
"  when  I  was  just  pass'd  my  twenty-first  year,  I  was 
taken  ill.  My  distemper  was  a  pleurisy  which  very 
nearly  carried  me  off.  I  suffered  a  great  deal,  gave  up 
the  point  in  my  own  mind  and  was  rather  disappointed 
when  I  found  myself  recovering,  regretting,  in  some 
degree,  that  I  must  now,  sometime  or  other,  have  all 
that  disagreeable  work  to  do  over."  In  1735  he  had  a 
second  attack  of  this  complaint,  of  so  serious  a  charac- 
ter that  the  left  lung  suppurated.  Prior  to  these  two 
seizures,  too,  he  thought  he  had  avoided  an  illness  only 
by  "  having  read  somewhere  that  cold  water,  drank 
plentifully,  was  good  for  a  fever,"  and  when  "  in  the 
evening  I  found  myself  very  feverish,"  "  I  followed  the 
prescription,  sweat  plentifully  most  of  the  night,  and 
the  next  morning  was  well  again."  This  is  the  more 
interesting  since  for  many  years  afterward  the  usual 
treatment  for  fevers  involved  the  entire  denial  of  water 
to  the  sufferer. 

In  another  way  Franklin  differed  from  his  own  gen- 

42 


PHYSIQUE 

eration  in  not  dreading  water.  Not  merely  did  he 
approve  of  water  internally,  but  externally  as  well. 
Swimming,  he  maintained,  was  one  of  the  most  health- 
ful and  agreeable  exercises  in  the  world,  and  if  one  did 
"  not  know  how  to  swim,  ...  a  warm  bath,  by  cleansing 


EAST   PROSPECT   OF  THE   CITY    OF   PHILADELPHIA,    1 754  (?). 

and  purifying  the  skin,  is  found  very  salutary.  ...  I 
speak  from  my  own  experience,  frequently  repeated,  and 
that  of  others,  to  whom  I  have  recommended  this."  In 
the  year  1778,  when  suffering  from  a  cutaneous  trouble, 
he  says,  "  I  took  a  hot  bath  twice  a  week,  two  hours  at 
a  time,"  with  the  utmost  benefit;  and  a  subsequent 
neglect,  when  he  "  hardly  bathed  in  those  three  months," 
served  to  bring  on  a  second  attack.  In  the  last  years 
of  his  life,  when  suffering  from  a  complication  of  mala- 
dies, Cutler  relates  that  he  "  used  a  warm  bath  every 
day,"  in  a  "  bathing  vessel  said  to  be  a  curiosity.  It 
is  copper,  in  the  form  of  a  Slipper.  He  sits  in  the 
Heel,  and  his  legs  go  under  the  Vamp ;  on  the  In- 
step he  has  a  place  to  fix  his  book,  and  here  he  sits 

43 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

and  enjoys  himself.  About  the  time  I  left  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  they  chose  him  President  of  the  Executive 
Council.  His  accepting  the  office  is  a  sure  sign  of  se- 
nility. But  would  it  not  be  a  capital  subject  for  an 
historical  painting — the  Doctor  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  Council  Board  in  his  bathing  slipper?" 

As  Franklin  was  in  advance  of  his  times  in  the  use  of 
water,  so,  too,  he  led  the  way  in  preaching  the  value  of 
fresh  air.  In  a  letter  to  his  friend  Dr.  Dubourg,  he  said  : 

"  I  greatly  approve  the  epithet  which  you  give,  in  your  letter  of 
the  8th  of  June,  to  the  new  method  of  treating  the  small-pox, 
which  you  call  the  tonic  or  bracing  method ;  I  will  take  occa- 
sion from  it  to  mention  a  practice  to  which  I  have  accus- 
tomed myself.  You  know  the  cold  bath  has  long  been  in 
vogue  here  as  a  tonic ;  but  the  shock  of  the  cold  water  has 
always  appeared  to  me,  generally  speaking,  as  too  violent, 
and  I  have  found  it  much  more  agreeable  to  my  constitution 
to  bathe  in  another  element,  I  mean  cold  air.  With  this  view 
I  rise  almost  every  morning  and  sit  in  my  chamber  without 
any  clothes  whatever,  half  an  hour  or  an  hour,  according  to 
the  season,  either  reading  or  writing.  This  practice  is  not  in 
the  least  painful,  but,  on  the  contrary,  agreeable;  and,  if  I 
return  to  bed  afterwards,  before  I  dress  myself,  as  sometimes 
happens,  I  make  a  supplement  to  my  night's  rest  of  one  or 
two  hours  of  the  most  pleasing  sleep  that  can  be  imagined. 
I  find  no  ill  consequences  whatever  resulting  from  it,  and  that 
at  least  it  does  not  injure  my  health,  if  it  does  not  in  fact  con- 
tribute much  to  its  preservation.  I  shall  therefore  call  it  for 
the  future  a  bracing  or  tonic  bath." 

This  theory  he  is  to  be  found  advocating  constantly. 
"  Another  means  of  preserving  health,  to  be  attended 
to,  is  the  having  a  constant  supply  of  fresh  air  in  your 
bed-chamber,"  he  averred.  "  It  has  been  a  great  mis- 
take the  sleeping  in  rooms  exactly  closed,  and  in  beds 
surrounded  by  curtains.  No  outward  air  that  may 

44 


PHYSIQUE 


OUS  etes  priesd'aff/fer  aux  Convoi,  Service 
&  Enter  re  mem.  dc  M.  JACQUES  DARBEU 
D  UBOURG,  Doctcnr-RcocntdclaFacuhe 

dc  Mc'dccuic  dc  Paris ,  Mcmbrc  de,<i  Socicics 
Romaics  dc  Msdecinc  dc  Paris  &  dc  Mont- 
pettier ,  dc  la  Societe  Medicate  dc  Londrcs  , 
dc  I' Academic  dc  Stockholm,  &  dc  la  Sociac.  Philofophique 
^     dc  Philadelphia ,  decedc  en  Jbn  Appartcmcnt,  Conr  Abbatialc 
de  I'Abbaye  Roy  ale  dc  Saint  Germain  dts  Trc's;  Quifefcront 
tMcrcredi  i5  Decembre.  177,9,  ^  ncuf  ^urcs  du  matin>  cn 


fa  Paroiflc,  oil  ilfcra  inhume. 

De  profundis. 


DeU(wi  deM.LAIRDE 


FRANKLIN'S  NOTIFICATION  TO  ATTEND  DUBOURG'S  FUNP:RAL. 

come  in  to  you  is  so  unwholesome  as  the  unchanged 
air,  so  often  breathed,  of  a  close  chamber."  Elsewhere 
he  wrote  :  "  Physicians,  after  having  for  ages  contended 
that  the  sick  should  not  be  indulged  with  fresh  air,  have 
at  length  discovered  that  it  may  do  them  good.  It  is 
therefore  to  be  hoped  that  they  may  in  time  discover 
likewise  that  it  is  not  hurtful  to  those  who  are  in  health, 
and  that  we  may  then  be  cured  of  the  aerophobia  that 
at  present  distresses  weak  minds,  and  makes  them 
choose  to  be  stifled  and  poisoned,  rather  than  leave 
open  the  window  of  a  bed-chamber,  or  put  down  the 
glass  of  a  coach."  A  most  amusing  glimpse  of  his 
proselytizing  is  given  in  John  Adams's  autobiography. 
During  a  journey  in  1776, 

"  At  Brunswick,  but  one  bed  could  be  procured  for  Dr.  Frank- 
lin and  me,  in  a  chamber  little  larger  than  the  bed,  without  a 

45 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

chimney,  and  with  only  one  small  window.  The  window  was 
open,  and  I  who  was  an  invalid  and  afraid  of  the  air  of  night, 
shut  it  close.  *  Oh,'  says  Franklin,  '  don't  shut  the  window, 
we  shall  be  suffocated.'  I  answered  I  was  afraid  of  the  even- 
ing air.  Dr.  Franklin  replied,  '  The  air  within  this  chamber 
will  soon  be,  and  indeed  is  now,  worse  than  that  without 
doors.  Come,  open  the  window  and  come  to  bed,  and  I  will 
convince  you.  I  believe  you  are  not  acquainted  with  my 
theory  of  colds  ?  '  Opening  the  window,  and  leaping  into 
bed,  I  said  I  had  read  his  letters  to  Dr.  Cooper,  in  which  he 
had  advanced,  that  nobody  ever  got  cold  by  going  into  a  cold 
church  or  any  other  cold  air,  but  the  theory  was  so  little  con- 
sistent with  my  experience,  that  I  thought  it  a  paradox.  How- 
ever, I  had  so  much  curiosity  to  hear  his  reasons  that  I  would 
run  the  risk  of  a  cold.  The  Doctor  then  began  a  harangue 
upon  air  and  cold,  and  respiration  and  perspiration,  with  which 
I  was  so  much  amused  that  I  soon  fell  asleep,  and  left  him 
and  his  philosophy  together,  but  I  believe  they  were  equally 
sound  and  insensible  within  a  few  minutes  after  me,  for  the  last 
words  I  heard  were  pronounced  as  if  he  was  more  than  half 
asleep.  I  remember  little  of  the  lecture,  except  that  the 
human  body,  by  respiration  and  perspiration,  destroys  a  gal- 
lon of  air  in  a  minute ;  that  two  such  persons  as  were  now  in 
that  chamber,  would  consume  all  the  air  in  it  in  an  hour  or 
two ;  that  by  breathing  over  again  the  matter  thrown  off  by 
the  lungs  and  the  skin,  we  should  imbibe  the  real  cause  of 
colds,  not  from  abroad,  but  from  within." 

Even  Franklin,  however,  could  have  a  surfeit  of  air,  and 
he  described  an  experience  on  the  frontier  which  his 
liking  for  fresh  air  brought  upon  him.  "  As  to  our 
lodging,"  he  related,  "  it  is  on  deal  feather-beds,  in 
warm  blankets,  and  much  more  comfortable  than  when 
we  lodged  at  our  inn  the  first  night  after  we  left  home ; 
for,  the  woman  being  about  to  put  very  damp  sheets 
on  the  bed,  we  desired  her  to  air  them  first ;  half  an 
hour  afterwards  she  told  us  the  bed  was  ready,  and  the 
sheets  well  aired.  I  got  into  bed,  but  jumped  out 


PHYSIQUE 

immediately,  finding  them  as  cold  as  death,  and  partly 
frozen.  She  had  aired  them  indeed,  but  it  was  out 
upon  the  hedge.  I  was  forced  to  wrap  myself  up  in 
my  great  coat  and  woolen  trowsers." 

"  He  that  lives  carnally,  won't  live  eternally,"  Poor 
Richard  assured  his  readers,  and  he  reinforced  this  with 
the  couplet : 

"  Against  Diseases  here,  the  strongest  Fence 
Is  the  defensive  Virtue,  Abstinence." 

Elsewhere  he  makes  his  opinion  more  specific  by  de- 
claring that  "  a  full  belly  is  the  mother  of  all  Evil,"  and 
advises  that  "  to  lengthen  thy  life,  lessen  thy  meals," 
for,  "  Three  good  meals  a  day  is  bad  living."  This 
caution  the  proverb-maker  himself  seems  to  have  re- 
garded early  in  life.  "At  16  years  of  age,"  he  says, 
"  I  happened  to  meet  with  a  book  written  by  one  Tryon, 
recommending  a  vegetable  diet.  I  determined  to  go 
into  it.  My  brother,  being  yet  unmarried,  did  not  keep 
house,  but  boarded  himself  and  his  apprentices  in  an- 
other family.  My  refusing  to  eat  flesh  occasioned  an 
inconveniency,  and  I  was  frequently  chid  for  my  singu- 
larity. I  made  myself  acquainted  with  Tryon's  manner 
of  preparing  some  of  his  dishes,  such  as  boiling  pota- 
toes or  rice,  making  hasty  pudding,  and  a  few  others, 
and  then  proposed  to  my  brother,  that  if  he  would  give 
me,  weekly,  half  the  money  he  paid  for  my  board,  I 
would  board  myself.  He  instantly  agreed  to  it,  and  I 
presently  found  that  I  could  save  half  what  he  paid 
me."  Such  was  Franklin's  enthusiasm  for  the  theory 
that  he  became  not  merely  a  disciple,  but  a  propagandist 

47 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


of  Tryon,  and  in  entering  Samuel  Keimer's  employment 
as  a  journeyman  printer  he  so  worked  upon  his  em- 
ployer, who  was  "  a  great  glutton,"  that 


The  W  A  Y  To 

H  E  A  L  T 

LONG 

Life  and  Happinefs : 

Or,'A  Difcourfe  of 

TEMPERANCE. 

And  the  Particular 
Nature  of  all  Things  requilite  for  the  Life  of 

Man  ?  As,  AH  forts  of  Mtttt>  Drinks,  Air,  Exercife,  &c. 
with  fpecial  Directions  how  to  life  each  of  them  to  the 
beft  Advantage  of  the  B  O  D  Y  and  MIND. 
Shewing  from  the  true  ground  of  Nature.*  whence  moft 
Diieafcs  proceed,  and  how  to  prevent  them. 
To  which  is  Added, 

ATreatifeofmoltfortsof  ENGLISH  HERBS, 

With  feveral  other  remarkable  and  tnoft  ufeful  Obfcrva. 
tions,very  neceflaryforall  Families.  The  whole  Trea- 
tifedifpfaying  the  moft  hidden  fecrets  of  Phikfoptfr  and 
made  eafie  and  familiar  to  the  meaneft  Capacities,  by 
various  Examples  and  Dcmonftrances, 


Communicated  to  the  World  for  a  general  Good, 

By  THOMAS  TRTON,  Student 

in  PHY  SICK. 


The  Second  £dirio»y  with  Anendmtntt. 


LONDON: 
Printed  by  //.  c.  for  &.  j}5ft»mon,  at  the  Kinff 
the  Poultry t  itfpi. 


FACSIMILE  OF  THE  TITLE-PAGE  OF 

THOMAS  TRYON'S  BOOK. 


"  He  agreed  to  try  the  practice  if  I  would  keep  him  company. 
I  did  so,  and  we  held  it  for  three  months.  We  had  our  vic- 
tuals dress'd,  and  brought  to  us  regularly  by  a  woman  in  the 

48 


PHYSIQUE 

neighborhood,  who  had  from  me  a  list  of  forty  dishes,  to  be 
prepar'd  for  us  at  different  times,  in  all  which  there  was  neither 
fish,  flesh,  nor  fowl,  and  the  whim  suited  me  the  better  at  this 
time  from  the  cheapness  of  it,  not  costing  us  above  eighteen 
pence  sterling  each  per  week.  I  have  since  kept  several  Lents 
most  strictly,  leaving  the  common  diet  for  that,  and  that  for  the 
common,  abruptly,  without  the  least  inconvenience,  so  that  I 
think  there  is  little  in  the  advice  of  making  those  changes  by 
easy  gradations.  I  went  on  pleasantly,  but  poor  Keimer  suf- 
fered grievously,  tired  of  the  project,  long'd  for  the  flesh-pots 
of  Egypt,  and  order'd  a  roast  pig.  He  invited  me  and  two 
women  friends  to  dine  with  him ;  but,  it  being  brought  too 
soon  upon  table,  he  could  not  resist  the  temptation,  and  ate 
the  whole  before  we  came." 

Undoubtedly,  as  all  this  indicated,  economy  was  quite 
as  strong  a  motive  with  Franklin  as  abstemiousness,  for 
he  tells  of  his  taking  lodgings  in  London  where  "  our 
supper  was  only  half  an  anchovy  each  on  a  very  little 
strip  of  bread  and  butter,  and  half  a  pint  of  ale  between 
us,"  because  of  its  greater  economy.  But  though 
motives  of  thrift  induced  him  to  sup  thus  frugally,  he 
seems  to  have  had  as  well  a  special  prejudice  against 
the  late  suppers  that  the  fashion  of  early  dining  then 
made  customary. 

"  Dine  with  little,  sup  with  less  : 
Do  better  still ;  sleep  supperless," 

he  recommends;  for,  "Eat  few  suppers  and  you  '11 
need  few  medicines."  In  the  same  vein  he  told  a 
correspondent:  "  In  general,  mankind,  since  the  im- 
provement of  cookery,  eat  about  twice  as  much  as 
nature  requires.  Suppers  are  not  bad,  if  we  have  not 
dined ;  but  restless  nights  naturally  follow  hearty  sup- 
pers after  full  dinners.  Indeed,  as  there  is  a  difference 

49 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

in  constitutions,  some  rest  well  after  these  meals;  it 
costs  them  only  a  frightful  dream  and  an  apoplexy, 
after  which  they  sleep  till  doomsday.  Nothing  is  more 
common  in  the  newspapers  than  instances  of  people  who, 
after  eating  a  hearty  supper,  are  found  dead  abed  in  the 
morning."  He  even  carried  his  theory  so  far  as  to 
approve  of  a  physician  "  who  prescribes  abstinence  for 
the  cure  of  consumption.  He  must  be  clever  because 
he  thinks  as  we  do."  "  I  saw  few  die  of  hunger,"  Poor 
Richard  affirmed;  "  of  eating — 100,000." 

This  moderation,  taught  by  maxim  and  example, 
was  due  to  discretion  rather  than  to  desire,  and  though 
Poor  Richard  insisted  that  all  should  "  Eat  to  live,  and 
not  live  to  eat,"  his  double,  as  time  wore  on,  failed  to 
live  up  to  his  own  good  advice;  and  such  temperance 
as  he  exercised  was  due  to  motives  of  economy  rather 
than  to  control  of  appetite.  "  The  poor  man,"  he  said, 
"  must  walk  to  get  meat  for  his  stomach,  the  rich  man 
to  get  a  stomach  to  his  meat,"  and  when  opportunity 
or  prosperity  enabled  him  to  gratify  his  appetite,  he  had 
occasion  often  to  reprove  himself  for  his  want  of  self- 
control  as  a  trencherman.  His  father  trained  him,  he 
states,  so  that  "  little  or  no  notice  was  ever  taken  of 
what  related  to  the  victuals  on  the  table,  whether  it 
was  well  or  ill  dressed,  in  or  out  of  season,  of  good  or 
bad  flavor,  preferable  or  inferior  to  this  or  that  other 
thing  of  the  kind,  so  that  I  was  bro't  up  in  such  a  per- 
fect inattention  to  those  matters  as  to  be  quite  indiffer- 
ent to  what  kind  of  food  was  set  before  me,  and  so 
unobservant  of  it  that,  to  this  day,  if  I  am  asked,  I  can 
scarce  tell  in  a  few  hours  after  dinner  what  I  dined  upon." 


PHYSIQUE 

None  the  less  Franklin  had  a  very  positive  relish  for  his 
food.  He  tells  an  amusing  story  of  how  he  came  first 
to  abandon  vegetarianism,  when,  on  a  voyage  from  Bos- 
ton, "  Being  becalm'd  off  Block  Island,  our  people  set 
about  catching  cod,  and  haul'd  up  a  good  many  "  ; 
which  Franklin  deemed  "  a  kind  of  unprovoked  murder." 

"  But  I  had  formerly  been  a  great  lover  of  fish,  and,  when  this 
came  hot  out  of  the  frying-pan,  it  smelt  admirably  well.  I 
balanc'd  some  time  between  principle  and  inclination,  till  I 
recollected  that,  when  the  fish  were  opened,  I  saw  smaller 
fish  taken  out  of  their  stomachs ;  then  thought  I,  *  If  you  eat 
one  another,  I  don't  see  why  we  may  n't  eat  you.'  So  I 
din'd  upon  cod  very  heartily,  and  continued  to  eat  with  other 
people,  returning  only  now  and  then  occasionally  to  a  vege- 
table diet.  So  convenient  a  thing  it  is  to  be  a  reasonable  crea- 
ture, since  it  enables  one  to  find  or  make  a  reason  for  every- 
thing one  has  a  mind  to  do." 

This  anecdote  is  not  the  only  evidence  that  Franklin 
thoroughly  enjoyed  the  palatable  things  of  life.  In  a 
voyage  across  the  Atlantic,  in  I  726,  he  states  that  the 
pilot  "  brought  on  board  about  a  peck  of  apples  with 
him ;  that  seemed  the  most  delicious  I  ever  tasted  in 
my  life ;  the  salt  provisions  we  had  been  used  to  gave 
them  a  relish."  On  the  frontier,  thirty  years  later,  he 
thanked  his  wife  for  a  supply  of  provisions,  telling  her: 
"  We  have  enjoyed  your  roast  beef,  and  this  day  began 
on  the  roast  veal.  All  agree  that  they  are  both  the 
best  that  ever  were  of  the  kind.  Your  citizens,  that 
have  their  dinners  hot  and  hot,  know  nothing  of  good 
eating.  We  find  it  in  much  greater  perfection  when 
the  kitchen  is  four  score  miles  from  the  dining  room. 
The  apples  are  extremely  welcome,  and  do  bravely  to 
eat  after  our  salt  pork ;  the  minced  pies  are  not  yet 

5' 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

come  to  hand."  Again,  when  in  England,  he  appa- 
rently craved  certain  American  dishes,  for  his  wife  wrote 
him :  "  I  have  Sente  to  you  two  Barrels  of  apels  which 
I  hope  will  prove  good.  I  cold  not  get  Sume  Indea 
meal  and  Buckwheat  flower.  But  I  shall  by  the  next 
opertunety."  Such  shipments  wrere  evidently  a  yearly 
practice,  for  a  twelvemonth  before  this  Franklin  had 
written  to  his  wife : 

"  The  buckwheat  and  Indian  meal  are  come  safe  and  good. 
They  will  be  a  great  refreshment  to  me  this  winter;  for,  since 
I  cannot  be  in  America,  everything  that  comes  from  thence 
comforts  me  a  little,  as  being  something  like  home.  The  dried 
peaches  are  excellent ;  those  dried  without  their  skins.  The 
parcel  in  their  skins  are  not  so  good.  The  apples  are  the  best 
I  ever  had,  and  came  with  the  least  damage.  The  sturgeon 
you  mention  did  not  come ;  but  that  is  not  so  material." 

Perhaps  the  frankest  indication  of  Franklin's  personal 
likings  is  afforded  in  his  acknowledgment  that  "  many 
people  are  fond  of  accounts  of  old  buildings  and  monu- 
ments, but  for  one,  I  confess  that  if  I  could  find  in  any 
Italian  travels  a  receipt  for  making  Parmesan  cheese,  it 
would  give  me  more  satisfaction  than  a  transcript  of 
any  inscription  from  any  old  stone  whatever." 

Franklin  began  life  equally  temperate  in  the  use  of 
liquor.  He  set  so  good  an  example  to  his  beer-drink- 
ing fellow-journeymen  in  London  that  they  christened 
him  the  "  Water-American,"  and  Poor  Richard  has 
many  a  wise  saw  and  maxim  inculcating  the  evil  of 
winebibbing.  Yet  here,  again,  it  seems  to  have  been 
more  a  matter  of  prudence  than  of  preference.  At  the 
time  he  adopted  vegetarianism,  the  lad  wrote  an  essay 
for  the  "New  England  Courant "  on  the  "Vice  of 

52 


PHYSIQUE 

Drunkenness,  the  better  to  reclaim  the  good  fellows 
who  usually  pay  the  Devotions  of  the  evening  to  Bac- 
chus "  ;  but  his  disapproval  was  not  extreme,  for  the 
sage  of  sixteen  maintained : 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN'S  \YINK-GLASS. 

Original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

"  I  doubt  not  hut  moderate  Drinking  has  been  improved  for  the 
Diffusion  of  Knowledge  among  the  ingenious  Part  of  Man- 
kind, who  want  the  Talent  of  a  ready  Utterance,  in  order  to 
discover  the  Conceptions  of  their  Minds  in  an  entertaining  and 
intelligible  Manner.  'T  is  true,  drinking  does  not  improve  our 
Faculties,  but  it  enables  us  to  use  them,  and  therefore  I  con- 
clude, that  much  Study  and  Experience,  and  a  little  Liquor 
are  of  absolute  Necessity  for  some  Tempers,  in  order  to  make 
them  accomplished  Orators." 

So,  too,  he  seems  never  to  have  been  a  total  abstainer. 
When  only  nineteen  years  of  age  he  discussed  a  busi- 

53 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

ness  matter  at  the  tavern  "  over  the  Madeira,"  and  in 
time  developed  a  decided  predilection  for  this  particu- 
lar wine ;  a  taste  reproved  by  a  feminine  friend,  who 
wrote  to  him,  when  he  was  suffering  from  one  of  his 
attacks  of  the  gout : 

"  I  own  I  thought  you  much  indisposed  when  I  saw  you  in 
Craven  Street,  and  I  allow  that  I  was  conceited  enough  to 
think  I  could  have  prescribed  better  things  than  Madeira  and 
Curagoa ;  not  that  I  am  an  enemy  to  either  in  a  healthy  state, 
or  in  some  diseases,  but  you  appeared  to  me  to  have,  at  the 
time  you  took  them,  too  much  on  your  stomach  of  the  nature 
of  sour  to  take  any  more  without  being  more  injured  than 
benefited,  tho'  taken  with  your  usual  moderation." 

To  his  friend  Strahan,  Franklin  laughingly  confessed : 
"  You  will  say  my  advice  'smells  of  Madeira.'  You 
are  right.  This  foolish  letter  is  mere  chitchat  between 
ourselves  over  the  second  bottle."  Elsewhere,  in  speak- 
ing of  finding  some  flies  in  a  bottle  of  Madeira,  which 
revived  after  months  of  imprisonment,  he  expressed 
the  \vish,  if  it  were  possible, 

"  To  invent  a  method  of  embalming  drowned  persons  in  such  a 
manner  that  they  may  be  recalled  to  life  at  any  period,  how- 
ever distant ;  for  having  a  very  ardent  desire  to  see  and  ob- 
serve the  state  of  America  a  hundred  years  hence,  I  should 
prefer  to  any  ordinary  death  the  being  immersed  in  a  cask  of 
Madeira  wine  with  a  few  friends  till  that  time,  to  be  then  re- 
called to  life  by  the  solar  warmth  of  my  dear  country !  " 

Nor  was  this  particular  beverage  the  only  one  for 
which  Franklin  showed  a  liking.  As  time  wore  on,  the 
Poor  Richard  who  advised  his  readers  to  "  Drink  water, 
put  the  money  in  your  pocket,  and  leave  the  dry  belly - 
ach  in  the  punch-bowl,"  apparently  recanted,  for  he 
printed  in  his  Almanac  the  following  doggerel : 

54 


PHYSIQUE 

"  Boy,  bring  a  bowl  of  china  here, 
Fill  it  with  water  cool  and  clear; 
Decanter  with  Jamaica  ripe, 
And  spoon  of  silver,  clean  and  bright, 
Sugar  twice-fin'd  in  pieces  cut, 
Knife,  sieve  and  glass  in  order  put, 
Bring  forth  the  fragrant  fruit,  and  then 
We  're  happy  till  the  clock  strikes  ten." 

Franklin  speaks  of  himself,  on  one  occasion,  as  "  put  in 
a  good  humour  by  a  glass  or  two  of  champagne,"  and 
presumably  it  was  in  another  such  moment  when  he 
composed  the  drinking-song  printed  in  facsimile.  To 
a  French  abbe  and  intimate  he  wrote,  late  in  life : 

"  My  Christian  brother,  be  kind  and  benevolent  like  God,  and 
do  not  spoil  his  good  work.  He  made  wine  to  gladden  the 
heart  of  men;  do  not,  therefore,  when  at  table  you  see  your 
neighbor  pour  wine  into  his  glass,  be  eager  to  mingle  water 
with  it.  Why  would  you  drown  truth  ?  ...  Do  not,  then, 
offer  water,  except  to  children ;  't  is  a  mistaken  piece  of  polite- 
ness, and  often  very  inconvenient.  I  give  you  this  hint  as  a 
man  of  the  world;  and  I  will  finish  as  I  began,  like  a  good 
Christian,  in  making  a  religious  observation  of  high  impor- 
tance, taken  from  the  Holy  Scriptures.  I  mean  that  the 
apostle  Paul  counselled  Timothy  very  seriously  to  put  wine 
into  his  water  for  the  sake  of  his  health ;  but  that  not  one  of 
the  apostles  or  holy  fathers  ever  recommended  putting  water 
to  wine" 

No  one  knew  better  than  Franklin  the  results  of 
undue  eating  and  drinking ;  but,  as  he  made  "  Madame 
Gout"  say  of  himself,  "You  philosophers  are  sages  in 
your  maxims  and  fools  in  your  conduct."  Referring  to 
an  illness,  he  said :  "  But  as  this  speedy  recovery  is, 
as  I  am  fully  persuaded,  owing  to  the  extreme  abstemi- 
ousness I  have  observed  for  some  days  past  at  home,  I 
am  not  without  apprehension  that,  being  to  dine  abroad 

55 


tt\V-"'    vY        '   £         * 

vY  ?-;\          W4  A    x'    ^     ^' 

K\)          "A  V      ftef     /  S      .  \     \  ?  \ 

Is  &  ^4-™M      5k '  I 

i>',KKl    d  .K;M 

1 1  Jt^ 
oj 


vp-v^  w 

Bii 

x    *.      \ 


ia 


N,l : 


s 


PHYSIQUE 

this  day,  to-morrow,  and  next  day,  I  may  inadvertently 
bring  it  on  again."  At  another  time,  he  took  "  note  of 
a  week's  diet  and  health,"  and  he  chronicles  that  after 
dining  at  ''Dolly's" — a  famous  London  chop-house — 
he  "  felt  symptoms  of  cold  —  fullness."  Dinner  the  day 
following  brought  on  a  cold,  in  which  he  takes  some 
pride,  because  he  had  "  predicted  it."  Still  continuing 
to  eat,  he  the  next  morning  records  that  he  had  a  "  very 
bad  night"  and  a  "little  soreness  of  Throat."  This 
induced  him  to  diet,  even  to  the  foregoing  of  his  dinner, 
and  he  ends  his  record  with  the  words,  "  had  a  good 
Night,  am  better."  Another  illness  he  blames  to  his 
having  eaten  "  a  hearty  supper,  much  cheese,  and  drank 
a  good  deal  of  champagne."  Yet  again,  he  "  dined,  and 
drank  rather  too  freely  at  M.  d'Arcy's,"  with  a  result- 
ing "  little  pain  in  my  great  toe." 

This  lessening  of  his  early  austerity  as  to  food  and 
drink  led  in  time  to  a  corpulence  over  which  Franklin 
joked  not  a  little.  In  1757  he  described  himself  to  a 
friend  as  "a  fat  old  fellow";  in  the  "Craven  Street 
Gazette  "  he  styles  himself  "  Dr.  Fatsides,"  refers  in 
the  same  sheet  to  "  the  great  person  (so  called  from  his 
enormous  size),"  and  explains  a  non-attendance  at 
church  by  the  fact  that  "  the  great  person's  broad-built 
bulk  lay  so  long  abed,  that  .  .  .it  was  too  late  to 
dress."  His  increase  of  flesh,  as  he  here  suggested, 
brought  with  it  a  physical  indolence.  As  early  as  1749 
Franklin  confesses  to  "  a  little  natural  indolence,"  and  in 
speaking  of  a  business  matter  which  called  for  a  jour- 
ney, he  wrote,  "  I  am  grown  almost  too  lazy  to  under- 
take it."  Fifteen  years  later,  apropos  of  an  intended 

57 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

visit,  he  told  a  friend  :  "  I  love  ease  more  than  ever, 
and  by  daily  using  your  horses  I  can  be  of  service  to 
you  and  them  by  preventing  their  growing  too  fat  and 
becoming  restive." 

He  was  not  his  only  accuser  in  this  respect.  John 
Adams,  in  1778,  said  of  him:  "[Franklin]  loves  his 
Ease,  hates  to  offend,  and  seldom  gives  any  opinion  till 
obliged  to  do  it.  ...  But  if  he  is  left  here  alone 
even  with  such  a  Secretary,  and  all  maritime  and  Com- 
mercial as  well  as  political  affairs  and  money  matters  are 
left  in  his  Hands,  I  am  persuaded  that  France  and 
America  will  both  have  reason  to  repent  it.  He  is  not 
only  so  indolent  that  Business  will  be  neglected,  but 
you  know  that  although  he  has  as  determined  a  soul 
as  any  man,  yet  it  is  his  constant  Policy  never  to  say 
'  yes  '  or  '  no  '  decidedly  but  when  he  cannot  avoid  it." 
In  this  opinion,  apparently,  Franklin  joined,  for  he  told 
a  friend  :  "  I  find  the  various  employments  of  merchant, 
banker,  Judge  of  Admiralty,  consul,  etc.  etc.,  besides 
my  ministerial  functions,  too  multifarious  and  too  heavy 
for  my  old  shoulders,  and  have  therefor  requested  Con- 
gress that  I  may  be  relieved ;  for  in  this  point  I  agree 
even  with  my  enemies,  that  another  may  easily  be  found 
who  can  better  execute  them."  Franklin  himself  be- 
lieved he  had  become  intellectually  idle. 

"  For  my  own  part,"  he  says,  "  everything  of  difficult  discus- 
sion, and  that  requires  close  attention  of  mind  and  an  application 
of  long  continuance,  grows  rather  irksome  to  me,  and  where 
there  is  not  some  absolute  necessity  for  it,  as  in  the  settlement 
of  accounts,  or  the  like,  I  am  apt  to  indulge  the  indolence 
usually  attending  age,  in  postponing  such  business  from  time 
to  time ;  though  continually  resolving  to  do  it." 

58 


PHYSIQUE 

At  first  Franklin  combated  his  tendency  to  physical 
ease  by  forcing  himself  to  take  exercise.  "  Dr.  Fatsides 
made  469  turns  in  his  dining-room,"  he  chronicled  in 
the  "  Craven  Street  Gazette,"  and  that  this  was  habitual 
is  implied  by  an  entry  in  John  Adams's  diary,  where  it 
is  recorded  that  "  Dr.  Franklin,  upon  my  saying  the 
other  day  that  I  fancied  he  did  not  exercise  so  much  as 
he  was  wont,  answered,  '  Yes,  I  walk  a  league  every 
day  in  my  chamber;  I  walk  quick,  and  for  an  hour,  so 
that  I  go  a  league;  I  make  a  point  of  religion  of  it.'  ' 
Even  so  late  as  1771,  his  sister,  in  writing  to  Mrs. 
Franklin,  said:  "We  shall  Nither  of  us  now  Atain  to 
what  my  Brother  writs  me  of  Himself  that  He  has 
Lately  walkd  ten  miles  without  Resting,  &  is  in  fine 
Helth  which  I  am  shure  you  &  I  Joyn  in  Blessing  God 
for."  About  the  same  date,  too,  Franklin  wrote  his 
son  concerning  the  dumb-bell :  "  By  the  use  of  it  I  have 
in  forty  swings  quickened  my  pulse  from  sixty  to  one 
hundred  beats  in  a  minute,  counted  by  a  second-watch, 
and  I  suppose  the  warmth  generally  increases  with  the 
quickness  of  pulse." 

If  Franklin  did  not  live  according  to  Poor  Richard's 
maxims,  he  at  least  illustrated  some  of  them. 

"  Be  temperate  in  wine,  in  eating,  girls,  and  sloth, 
Or  the  gout  will  seize  you  and  plague  you  both," 

his  Almanac  for  1734  warned  its  patrons.  As  early  as 
1 749  the  disease  was  upon  him,  but  in  a  mild  form,  and  he 
was  quickly  able  to  tell  his  mother  that  "  my  leg,  which 
you  inquire  after,  is  now  quite  w^ell."  From  this  time, 
during  the  next  twenty  years,  he  had  "  once  in  two  or 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

three  years  a  slight  fit  of  the  gout,  which  generally  ter- 
minated in  a  week  or  ten  days."  These  attacks,  like 
his  first,  were  not  serious,  and  in  I  768  he  wrote  his  wife  : 
"  I  have  had  but  one  touch  of  the  gout,  and  that  a 
light  one,  since  I  left  you.  It  was  just  after  my  arrival 
here,  so  that  this  is  the  fourth  winter  I  have  been  free." 
A  year  later  he  reiterated  this,  saying:  "  I  am  now  and 
have  been  all  this  winter  in  very  good  health,  thanks  to 
God.  I  only  once  felt  a  little  admonition,  as  if  a  fit  of 
the  gout  would  attack  me,  but  it  did  not."  In  1/70 
he  did  not  fare  so  well.  "  As  to  myself,"  he  said,  "  I 
had,  from  Christmas  till  Easter,  a  disagreeable  giddiness 
hanging  about  me,  which,  however,  did  not  hinder  me 
from  being  about  and  doing  business.  In  the  Easter 
holidays,  being  at  a  friend's  house  in  the  country,  I 
was  taken  with  a  sore  throat,  and  came  home  half 
strangled.  From  Monday  till  Friday  I  could  swallow 
nothing  but  barley  water,  and  the  like.  On  Friday 
came  on  a  fit  of  the  gout,  from  which  I  had  been  free 
five  years.  Immediately  the  inflammation  and  swelling 
in  my  throat  disappeared ;  my  foot  swelled  greatly,  and 
I  was  confined  about  three  weeks ;  since  which  I  am 
perfectly  well,  the  giddiness  and  every  other  disagree- 
able symptom  having  quite  left  me."  Again,  in  1772, 
he  explained  his  lack  of  news,  because,  "  being  gouty 
of  late,  [I]  seldom  go  into  the  city."  Evidently  the 
ailment  was  still  of  a  mild  form,  for  he  told  Mrs.  Frank- 
lin :  "  I  thank  you  for  your  advice  about  putting  back  a  fit 
of  the  gout.  I  shall  never  attempt  such  a  thing.  Indeed 
I  have  not  much  occasion  to  complain  of  the  gout,  hav- 
ing had  but  two  slight  fits  since  I  came  last  to  England." 

60 


PHYSIQUE 

Upon  his  return  to  America,  in  1775,  Franklin  noted 
that  "  I  immediately  entered  the  Congress,  where,  and 
with  the  Committee  of  Safety,  I  sat  a  great  part  of  that 
year  and  the  next,  ten  or  twelve  hours  a  day,  without 
exercise."  This  served  to  bring  on  another  attack, 
which  is  of  special  interest  because  of  its  relation  to  a 
bigger  event.  As  is  well  known,  Franklin  was  ap- 
pointed one  of  the  committee  to  prepare  a  Declaration 
of  Independence  on  June  10,  yet  eleven  days  later  he 
wrote:  "  I  am  recovering  from  a  severe  fit  of  gout,  so 
that  I  know  little  of  what  has  passed  there  [in  Con- 
gress], except  that  a  Declaration  of  Independence  is 
preparing."  Sent  to  Canada  a  little  later  in  this  same 
year,  the  travel  and  exposure  so  told  upon  him  that  he 
sat  "  down  to  write  to  a  few  friends  by  way  of  fare- 
well," for  "  I  begin  to  apprehend  that  I  have  undertaken 
a  fatigue  that  at  my  time  of  life  may  prove  too  much 
for  me."  "  I  find  I  grow  daily  more  feeble.  .  .  .  Some 
symptoms  of  the  gout  now  appear,  which  makes  me 
think  my  indisposition  has  been  a  smothered  fit  of  that 
disorder,  which  my  constitution  wanted  strength  to 
form  completely."  He  himself  believed  that  he  owed 
his  life  to  the  care  given  him  by  his  traveling  compan- 
ion John  Carroll,  a  Catholic  priest,  and  how  he  later  re- 
warded the  kindness  is  told  elsewhere. 

Late  in  1776  Franklin  sailed  for  Europe  as  commis- 
sioner to  the  court  of  France,  and  scarcely  had  he  en- 
tered upon  his  duties  when  his  chronic  malady  came 
upon  him.  One  of  his  fellow-commissioners  was  forced 
to  apologize  to  the  French  Foreign  Office  because  "  the 
Treaty  with  the  Farmers  General  has  been  retarded,  on 

6l 


ARCHBISHOP  JOHN   CARROLL. 
After  portrait  by  Stuart,  in  possession  of  Georgetown  College,  Washington,  D.  C. 


PHYSIQUE 

account  of  Dr.  Franklin's  illness,"  and  Franklin  cau- 
tioned a  correspondent :  "  Don't  be  proud  of  this  long 
letter.  A  fit  of  the  gout,  which  has  confined  me  five 
days  and  made  me  refuse  to  receive  company,  has 
given  me  a  little  time  to  trifle."  In  1779  another  sei- 
zure further  interfered  with  his  diplomatic  duties.  "  A 
severe  fit  of  the  gout,  with  too  much  business  at  the 
same  time  necessary  to  be  done,"  he  gives  as  his  diffi- 
culties, but  says  elsewhere :  "  I  don't  complain  much, 
even  of  the  gout,  which  has  harassed  me,"  because 
"  they  say  that  is  not  so  much  a  disease  as  a  remedy  "  ; 
and  he  jokingly  ends,  "  there  seems,  however,  some  incon- 
gruity in  a  plenipotentiary  who  can  neither  stand  nor  go" 

From  this  time  Franklin's  gout  seriously  interfered 
with  his  ministerial  duties.  In  going  to  court  in  1780, 
he  records  in  his  diary  that  he  was  "  Much  fatigued  by 
the  going  twice  up  and  down  the  palace  stairs,  from  the 
tenderness  of  my  feet  and  weakness  of  my  knees ;  there- 
fore did  not  go  the  rounds  "  ;  and  a  year  later  he  noted  : 
"  Went  to  Court  and  performed  the  round  of  levees, 
though  with  much  pain  and  difficulty  through  the  ten- 
derness and  feebleness  of  my  feet  and  knees."  Another 
twelve  months  forced  him  to  apologize  for  not  having 
paid  "  my  devoirs  at  Versailles,"  because,  "  since  my  last 
severe  fit  of  the  gout,  my  legs  have  continued  so  weak 
that  I  am  hardly  able  to  keep  pace  with  the  ministers, 
who  walk  fast,  especially  in  going  up  and  down  stairs." 
From  that  time  he  was  always  represented  at  court  by 
his  grandson. 

Franklin's  treatment  of  his  gout  was  decidedly 
original. 

63 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

';  I  forgot  to  acquaint  you,"  he  told  his  friend  Dr.  Small,  "  that 
I  had  treated  it  (my  gout)  a  little  cavalierly  in  its  last  two  ac- 
cesses. Finding  one  night  that  my  foot  gave  me  more  pain 
after  it  was  covered  warm  in  bed,  I  put  it  out  of  bed  naked ; 
and,  perceiving  it  easier,  I  let  it  remain  longer  than  I  at  first 
designed,  and  at  length  fell  asleep,  leaving  it  there  till  morn- 
ing. The  pain  did  not  return,  and  I  grew  well.  Next  winter, 
having  a  second  attack,  I  repeated  the  experiment ;  not  with 
such  immediate  success  in  dismissing  the  gout,  but  constantly 
with  the  effect  of  rendering  it  less  painful,  so  that  it  permitted 
me  to  sleep  every  night.  I  should  mention  that  it  was  my  son 
who  gave  me  the  first  intimation  of  this  practice.  He  being 
in  the  old  opinion,  that  the  gout  was  to  be  drawn  out  by  tran- 
spiration ;  and  having  heard  me  say,  that  perspiration  was  car- 
ried on  more  copiously  when  the  body  was  naked  than  when 
clothed,  he  put  his  foot  out  of  bed  to  increase  that  discharge, 
and  found  ease  by  it,  which  he  thought  a  confirmation  of  the 
doctrine.  But  this  method  requires  to  be  confirmed  by  more 
experiments,  before  one  can  conscientiously  recommend  it." 

If  the  gout  was  Franklin's  chronic  disorder,  it  by  no 
means  saved  him  from  other  maladies  of  the  flesh.  In 
1755  he  wrote  a  relative:  "  I  have  been  ill  these  eight 
days,  confined  to  my  room  and  bed  most  of  the  time, 
but  am  now  getting  better."  Soon  after  his  arrival  in 
England,  in  1757,  he  was  seized  with  an  intermittent 
fever,  "  got  from  making  experiments  over  stagnant 
waters,"  which  "  continued  to  harass  me  by  frequent 
relapses."  No  sooner  was  he  well  from  this  than  "  I 
had  a  violent  cold  and  something  of  a  fever,"  and 

"  It  was  not  long  before  I  had  another  severe  cold,  which  con- 
tinued longer  than  the  first,  attended  by  great  pain  in  my  head, 
the  top  of  which  was  very  hot,  and  when  the  pain  went  off, 
very  sore  and  tender.  These  fits  of  pain  continued  sometimes 
longer  than  at  others ;  seldom  less  than  twelve  hours,  and 
once  thirty-six  hours.  I  was  now  and  then  a  little  delirious ; 
they  cupped  me  on  the  back  of  the  head,  which  seemed  to 

64 


PHYSIQUE 

ease  me  for  the  present ;  I  took  a  great  deal  of  bark,  both  in 
substance  and  infusion,  and  too  soon  thinking  myself  well, 
I  ventured  out  twice,  to  do  a  little  business  and  forward  the 
service  I  am  engaged  in,  and  both  times  got  fresh  cold  and 
fell  down  again.  My  good  doctor  [Fothergill]  grew  very 
angry  with  me  for  acting  contrary  to  his  cautions  and  direc- 
tions, and  obliged  me  to  promise  more  observance  for  the 
future.  ...  I  took  so  much  bark  in  various  ways,  that  I  be- 
gan to  abhor  it;  I  durst  not  take  a  vomit,  for  fear  of  my  head ; 
but  at  last  I  was  seized  one  morning  with  a  vomiting  and 
purging,  the  latter  of  which  continued  the  greater  part  of  the 
day,  and  I  believe  was  a  kind  of  crisis  to  the  distemper,  car- 
rying it  clear  off;  for  ever  since  I  feel  quite  lightsome,  and  am 
gathering  strength;  so  I  hope  my  seasoning  is  over,  and  that  I 
shall  enjoy  better  health  during  the  rest  of  my  stay  in  England. " 

Clearly  Franklin  had  forgotten  Poor  Richard's  admoni- 
tion to  "  Be  not  sick  too  late,  nor  well  too  soon." 

As  early  as  1755  his  eyesight  was  more  or  less 
affected,  and  four  years  later  he  was  wearing  glasses, 
for  he  "  could  not  find  "  a  woman  friend  "  at  the  Ora- 
torio in  the  Foundling  Hospital,  .  .  .  though  I  looked 
with  all  the  eyes  I  had,  not  excepting  even  those  I 
carried  in  my  pocket."  In  1776  he  complains  that 
"  my  eyes  will  now  hardly  serve  me  to  write  by  night," 
and  from  this  time  on  he  was  compelled  to  use  the 
double  spectacles  which  he  invented  for  his  own  benefit, 
the  upper  half  of  the  lens  being  curved  for  distant 
vision,  and  the  lower  half  for  reading. 

With  his  waxing  flesh  came  a  certain  clumsiness  of 
body,  which  resulted,  in  1763,  while  on  a  journey,  in  a 
bad  fall,  from  which  he  had  barely  recovered  when  he 
repeated  the  accident  and  "  put  my  shoulder  out.  It 
is  well  reduced  again,  but  is  still  affected  with  constant, 
though  not  very  acute  pain.  I  am  not  yet  able  to  travel 

65 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

rough  roads,  and  must  lie  bye  awhile  as  I  can  neither  hold 
reins  nor  whip  with  my  right  hand  till  it  grows  stronger." 
If  travel  was  responsible  for  this  first  mishap,  it  served 
Franklin  in  better  part  upon  other  occasions.  "  I  wrote 
you  that  I  had  been  very  ill  lately,  I  am  now  nearly 
well  again,  but  feeble,"  he  chronicled  in  1766.  ''  To- 
morrow I  set  out  with  my  friend,  Dr.  Pringle  (now  Sir 
John),  on  a  journey  to  Pyrmont,  where  he  goes  to  drink 
the  waters ;  but  I  hope  more  for  the  air  and  the  exer- 
cise, having  been  used,  as  you  know,  to  have  a  journey 
once  a  year,  the  want  of  which  last  year  has,  I  believe, 
hurt  me,  so  that,  though  I  was  not  quite  to  say  sick,  I 
was  often  ailing  last  Winter,  and  throughout  the  Spring." 
In  this  hope  he  was  not  disappointed,  for  upon  his  re- 
turn he  informed  a  correspondent:  "  I  have  only  time 
to  assure  you  that  I  have  been  extreamly  hearty  and 
well  ever  since  my  Return  from  France,  the  Complaints 
I  had  before  I  went  on  that  Tour,  being  entirely  dissi- 
pated ;  and  fresh  Strength  and  Activity,  the  Effects  of 
Exercise  and  Change  of  Air,  have  taken  their  place." 
The  beneficial  results,  however,  were  by  no  means  last- 
ing, for  very  quickly  he  was  "  meditating  a  journey 
somewhere,  perhaps  to  Bath  or  Bristol,  as  I  begin  to 
find  a  little  giddiness  in  my  head,  a  token  that  I  want 
the  exercise  I  have  yearly  been  accustomed  to."  "  I 
was,"  he  records  at  this  time,  "  sometimes  vexed  with 
an  itching  on  the  back,  which  I  observed  particularly 
after  eating  freely  of  beef.  And  sometimes  after  long 
confinement  at  writing,  with  little  exercise,  I  have  felt 
sudden  pungent  pains  in  the  flesh  of  different  parts  of 
the  body,  which  I  was  told  was  scorbutic.  A  journey 

66 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

used  to  free  me  of  them."  "  My  constitution,"  he  ob- 
served, "  and  too  great  confinement  to  business  during 
the  Winter  seemed  to  require  the  air  and  exercise  of  a 
long  journey  once  a  year.  Which  I  have  now  prac- 
ticed for  more  than  twenty  years  past." 

During  a  trip  in  Ireland  in  1773,  "after  a  plentiful 
dinner  of  fish  the  first  day  of  my  arrival,"  Franklin 
was  taken  sick,  and  though  not  invalided,  he  did  not 
altogether  recover  for  four  or  five  weeks.  "  On  my 
return  I  first  observed  a  kind  of  scab  or  scurf  on  my 
head  about  the  bigness  of  a  shilling.  Finding  it  did  not 
heal,  but  rather  increased,  I  mentioned  it  to  my  friend,  Sir 
J.  P.,  who  advised  a  mercurial  water  to  wash  it,  and  some 
physic.  It  slowly  left  that  place,  but  appeared  in  other 
parts  of  my  head.  He  also  advised  my  abstaining  from 
salt  meats  and  cheese,  which  advicel  did  not  much  follow, 
often  forgetting  it  " — a  forgetfulness  of  Poor  Richard  as 
well,  for  the  Almanac-maker  had  counseled : 

"  Cheese  and  salt  meat 
Should  be  sparingly  eat." 

This  skin-disease  was  increased  by  his  voyage  to  Amer- 
ica in  1775,  during  which  he  "  necessarily  ate  more  salt 
meat  than  usual."  The  diet  and  his  sedentary  life  in 
Congress  brought  on  "  frequent  giddiness,"  he  suffered 
much  from  a  number  of  large  boils,  and  "  apprehended 
dropsy."  In  his  passage  to  France  in  1776, 

"  I  lived  chiefly  on  salt  beef,  the  fowls  being  too  hard  for  my 
teeth.  But,  being  poorly  nourished,  I  was  very  weak  at  my 
arrival ;  boils  continued  to  vex  me,  and  the  scurf  extending 
over  all  the  small  of  my  back,  on  my  sides,  my  legs,  and  my 
arms,  besides  what  continued  under  my  hair,  I  applied  to  a 
physician,  who  ordered  me  Mr.  Bellosto's  pills  and  an  infu- 

68 


PHYSIQUE 

sion  of  a  root  called I  took  the  infusion  awhile,  but  it 

being  disagreeable,  and  finding  no  effect,  I  omitted  it.  I  con- 
tinued to  take  the  pills,  but  finding  my  teeth  loosening,  and 
that  I  had  lost  three,  I  desisted  the  use  of  them.  I  found 
that  bathing  stopped  the  progress  of  the  disorder.  I  therefore 
took  the  hot  bath  twice  a  week,  two  hours  at  a  time,  till  this 
last  summer.  It  always  made  me  feel  comfortable  as  I  rubbed 
off  the  softened  scurf  in  the  warm  water;  and  I  otherwise  en- 
joyed exceeding  good  health.  I  stated  my  case  to  Dr.  In- 
genhousz,  and  desired  him  to  show  it  to  Sir  J.  P.,  and  obtain 
his  advice.  They  sent  me  from  London  some  medicine,  but, 
Dr.  Ingenhousz  proposing  to  come  over  soon,  and  the  affair 
not  pressing,  I  resolved  to  omit  taking  the  medicine  till  his 
arrival.  In  July,  (1778)  the  disorder  began  to  diminish  at 
first  slowly,  but  afterwards  rapidly ;  and  by  the  beginning  of 
October  it  had  quitted  entirely  my  legs,  feet,  thighs,  and  arms, 
and  my  belly ;  a  very  little  was  left  on  my  sides,  more  on  the 
small  of  my  back,  but  the  whole  daily  diminishing." 

The  disobedience  to  the  orders  and  advice  of  his 
various  doctors,  already  recorded,  make  Franklin's  views 
on  the  profession  worth  glancing  at ;  and  possibly  his 
reason  for  the  neglect  is  to  be  found  in  his  declaration 
that  "  There  are  more  old  drunkards,  than  old  doctors." 
"  He  is  the  best  physician  that  knows  the  worthless- 
ness  of  the  most  medicines,"  asserted  Poor  Richard  ;  for, 
"  Many  Dishes,  many  diseases ;  many  medicines,  few 
cures,"  and  even  these  "  few  cures  "  the  Almanac-maker 
was  apparently  not  willing  to  give  to  the  profession,  for 
he  claims  that  "  God  heals  and  the  doctor  takes  the  fee." 
In  one  of  Franklin's  squibs  he  quotes  with  evident  ap- 
proval the  "  Italian  Epitaph  upon  a  poor  fool  that  killed 
himself  with  quacking,  '  I  was  well,  I  would  be  better, 
I  took  Physick  and  died,'  "  and  that  this  really  repre- 
sented his  opinion  of  most  drugs  is  shown  in  another 
instance.  Jefferson  relates  an  incident  which  occurred 

69 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

during  a  discussion  in  the  Continental  Congress  over  a 
partial  suspension  of  the  non-importation  association. 

"  I  was  sitting  by  Dr.  Franklin  and  observed  to  him  that  I 
thought  we  should  except  books;  that  we  ought  not  to  ex- 
clude science,  even  coming  from  an  enemy.  He  thought  so 
too,  and  I  proposed  the  exception,  which  was  agreed  to. 
Soon  after  it  occurred  that  medicine  should  be  excepted,  and 
I  suggested  that  also  to  the  Doctor.  « As  to  that,'  said  he, 
'  I  will  tell  you  a  story.  When  I  was  in  London,  in  such  a 
year,  there  was  a  weekly  club  of  physicians,  of  which  Sir  John 
Pringle  was  President,  and  I  was  invited  by  my  friend  Dr. 
FothergiH  to  attend  when  convenient.  Their  rule  was  to  pro- 
pose a  thesis  one  week  and  discuss  it  the  next.  I  happened 
there  when  the  question  to  be  considered  was  whether  physi- 
cians had,  on  the  whole,  done  most  good  or  harm  ?  The 
young  members,  particularly,  having  discussed  it  very  learnedly 
and  eloquently  till  the  subject  was  exhausted,  one  of  them 
observed  to  Sir  John  Pringle,  that  although  it  was  not  usual 
for  the  President  to  take  part  in  a  debate,  yet  they  were  desir- 
ous to  know  his  opinion  on  the  question.  He  said  they  must 
first  tell  him  whether,  under  the  appellation  of  physicians, 
they  meant  to  include  old  women,  if  they  did  he  thought  they 
had  done  more  good  than  harm,  otherwise  more  harm  than 
good.' " 

Yet  during  all  his  life  Franklin's  closest  friends  were, 
for  the  most  part,  medical  men.  In  Philadelphia, 
Thomas  Bond,  Phineas  Bond,  John  Bard,  Thomas  Cad- 
walader,  and  John  Jones ;  in  London,  Sir  John  Pringle, 
Sir  William  Watson,  John  FothergiH,  William  Hewson, 
and  Edward  Bancroft;  and  on  the  Continent,  Barbeu 
Dubourg,  Ingenhousz,  and  Guillotin  were  among  his 
greatest  intimates  and  co-workers.  Upon  one  occasion, 
in  writing  to  his  "  Honoured  father  and  mother,"  he 
told  them  :  "  I  apprehend  I  am  too  busy  in  prescribing 
and  meddling  in  the  doctor's  sphere,  when  any  of  you 

70 


PHYSIQUE 


complain  of  ails  in  your  letters.  But  as  I  always  employ 
a  physician  myself  when  any  disorder  arises  in  my  fam- 
ily, and  submit  implicitly  to  his  orders  in  every  thing, 
so  I  hope  you  consider  my  advice,  when  I  give  any, 


SOME 


ACCOUNT 


THE 


Pennfylvania  Hofpital; 

From  its  firft  RISE,  to  the  Beginning 

of  the  Fifth  Montb>  called  May>  1754. 


PHILADELPHIA, 

Printed  by  B.   F  R  A  N  K  L  I  N,    and  D.  H  A  L  L,    Moccw£ 


FRANKLIN'S  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  PENNSYLVANIA 
HOSPITAL. 

From  the  original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

only  as  a  mark  of  my  good-will,  and  put  no  more  of  it 
in  practice  than  happens  to  agree  with  what  your  doctor 
directs."  He  refers  also,  as  an  object-lesson,  to  Lord 
Chatham,  of  whom  "  it  is  said  that  his  constitution  is 

71 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

totally  destroyed  and  gone,  partly  through  the  violence 
of  the  disease,  and  partly  by  his  own  continual  quack- 
ing with  it."  During  the  last  year  of  his  life,  too,  he 
drew  up  a  "  Plan  for  a  Medical  School." 

In  another  way,  Franklin  proved  that  his  girds  at 
physicians  and  medicine  did  not  wholly  represent  his 
real  opinion.  "  In  1751,"  his  autobiography  states, 
"  Dr.  Thomas  Bond,  a  particular  friend  of  mine,  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  establishing  a  hospital  in  Philadel- 
phia, .  .  .  but  the  proposal,  being  a  novelty  in 
America,  and  at  first  not  well  understood,  he  met  with 
but  small  success.  At  length  he  came  to  me,  with  the 
compliment,  that  he  found  there  was  no  such  thing  as 
carrying  a  public-spirited  project  through  without  my 
being  concerned  in  it.  ...  I  enquir'd  into  the  nature 
and  probable  utility  of  his  scheme,  and  receiving  from 
him  a  very  satisfactory  explanation,  I  not  only  sub- 
scrib'd  to  it  myself,  but  engaged  heartily  in  the  design 
of  procuring  subscriptions  from  others.  Previously, 
however,  to  the  solicitation,  I  endeavour'd  to  prepare 
the  minds  of  the  people  by  writing  on  the  subject  in  the 
newspapers,  which  was  my  usual  custom  in  such  cases, 
but  which  he  had  omitted."  Not  content  with  these 
newspaper  articles,  Franklin  later  drew  up,  and  pub- 
lished in  pamphlet  form,  "  Some  Account  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Hospital,"  from  which  it  is  learned  that  his 
subscription  was  twenty-five  pounds,  and  that  for  a 
number  of  years  he  was  one  of  the  board  of  governors. 
He  also  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  grant  of  funds  from 
the  Assembly,  by  a  shrewd  bit  of  management,  and 
long  after  he  declared :  "  I  do  not  remember  any  of  my 


O     p-: 

' 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


FRIEDRICH  ANTON   MESMER. 
From  an  old  French  print. 


political  manoeuvres, 
the  success  of  which 
gave  me,  at  the  time, 
more  pleasure,  or 
wherein,  after  thinking 
of  it,  I  more  easily  ex- 
cus'd  myself  for  having 
made  use  of  cunning." 
Nothing,  perhaps, 
better  showed  his  atti- 
tude toward  all  quacks 
than  a  service  he  ren- 
dered in  1784.  Mes- 
mer,  after  being  dis- 
credited in  Vienna, 
chiefly  at  the  hands 

of  Franklin's  friend  Ingenhousz,  came  to  Paris  in  1778, 
and  began  the  practice  of  his  pretended  cure-all ;  but 
with  very  slight  success,  Franklin  himself  then  hap- 
pening to  be  the  moment's  fashion.  In  time,  however, 
his  seances  became,  in  the  words  of  one  writer,  the 
affaire  du  bon  ton,  while  another  declared  that  "  all  the 
world  wished  to  be  magnetized."  Such  was  the  craze 
that  a  mere  deputy  of  Mesmer  is  said  to  have  cleared 
one  hundred  thousand  pounds  within  six  months,  and 
the  frenzy  became  so  serious  that  the  government  finally 
interfered.  A  commission  was  appointed,  made  up  of 
four  leading  physicians  of  the  Faculty  of  Paris,  to  which 
five  members  of  the  Royal  Academy  were  added,  of 
whom  Franklin  was  named  first,  and  such  well-known 
men  and  scientists  as  Le  Roy,  De  Bory,  Guillotin,  and 

74 


PHYSIQUE 

Lavoisier  associated  with  him.  After  investigation  they 
made  a  report  which,  in  Jefferson's  words,  gave  the 
"compound  of  fraud  and  folly"  its  "  death-  wound." 
Mesmer's  thesis  that  in  mankind  there  was  "  but  one 
nature,  one  distemper,  and  one  remedy,"  received 
humorous,  though  destructive,  treatment  at  the  hands 
of  these  scientists.  The  commission,  recognizing  the 
"  action  of  the  imagination  upon  the  animal  frame,"  and 
the  consequent 
"  nervous  influ- 
ence over  dis- 
ease," were  able 
to  repeat  all  Mes- 
mer's alleged 
cures,  not  by  his 
methods,  but  by 


simply  making 
his  patients  be- 
lieve that  they 
were  employing 
his  methods. 

More  destructive 
still,  they  pointed 
out  that  there 
was  nothing  new 
in  the  alleged  sci- 
ence, all  Mes- 
mer's experi- 
ments and  pro- 
cesses having 
been  practised 


RAPPORT 

DES    COMMISSAIRES 

CHARGE'S  PAR  LE  ROI 

D  E    L'E  X  A  M  £  N 


MAGNETISME  ANIMAL. 

Imprime  par  orJrc  du  Roi. 


A      PARIS, 
DE  L'IMPRIMERIE   ROYALE. 


M.  DCCLXXXIV. 


TITLE-PAGE  OF  THE  REPORT  OF  THE   ROYAL 
COMMISSION   ON   MESMERISM. 

From  Franklin's  own  copy  in  the  Pennsylvania 
Historical  Society. 


75 


THE    MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

fully  a  century  before  he  claimed  their  discovery.  The 
bubble  was  pricked,  and  Mesmer  disappeared,  to  die 
long  after,  "quite  forgotten." 

Another  charlatan  with  whom  Franklin  came  in  con- 
tact about  this  time  was  the  pretended  Count  Caglios- 
tro,  who  later  was  to  win  a  notoriety  as  great  as 
Mesmer's,  in  connection  with  the  diamond-necklace 
affair,  but  who  at  this  time  was  still  an  obscure  doctor. 
He  was  recommended  to  Franklin  by  his  friend  Brillon 
during  an  illness,  but  whether  he  ever  treated  him  with 
his  "  secret  remedy  "  for  the  gravel  is  not  known. 

The  tendency  to  form  gravel,  or  stone,  for  which 
Franklin  needed  medical  aid,  was  probably  inherited, 
for  his  father,  Josiah,  had  died  of  the  trouble,  and  his 
brother  John  had  been  a  long  sufferer  from  it.  With 
Franklin  it  seems  to  have  first  developed  in  1783,  when 
his  grandson  Temple  notified  Vergennes  that  "  My 
grandfather's  '  gravel '  has  now  turned  into  the  gout 
which  prevents  his  appearing  at  Court  to-day  as  he  in- 
tended "  ;  and  Franklin  apologized  to  the  minister  be- 
cause, "  being  now  disabled  by  the  stone,  which  in  the 
easiest  carriage  gives  me  pain,  ...  I  find  I  can  no 
longer  pay  my  devoirs  personally  at  Versailles,  which 
I  hope  will  be  excused."  A  little  later  he  wrote  to 
John  Jay : 

"  It  is  true,  as  you  have  heard,  that  I  have  the  stone,  but  not 
that  I  had  thoughts  of  being  cut  for  it.  It  is  as  yet  very  toler- 
able. It  gives  me  no  pain  but  when  in  a  carriage  on  the 
pavement,  or  when  I  make  some  sudden  quick  movement. 
If  I  can  prevent  its  growing  larger,  which  I  hope  to  do  by 
abstemious  living  and  gentle  exercise,  I  can  go  on  pretty 
comfortably  with  it  to  the  end  of  my  journey,  which  can  now 

76 


PHYSIQUE 

be  at  no  great  distance.  I  am  cheerful,  enjoy  the  company 
of  my  friends,  sleep  well,  have  sufficient  appetite,  and  my 
stomach  performs  well  its  functions.  The  latter  is  very  mate- 
rial to  the  preservation  of  health.  I  therefore  take  no  drugs 
lest  I  should  disorder  it.  You  may  judge  that  my  disease  is 
not  very  grievous,  since  I  am  more  afraid  of  the  medicines 
than  of  the  malady." 

As  this  extract  indicates,  Franklin  took  his  suffering 
cheerily.  "As  to  myself,"  he  told  one  friend,  "  I  con- 


COUNT  ALESSANDRO   DI   CAGLIOSTRO. 
After  an  old  engraving  by  F.  Bonneville. 

tinue  as  hearty  as  at  my  age  could  be  expected,  and  as 
cheerful  as  ever  you  knew  me  "  ;  and  to  another  he  ex- 
pressed the  hope  that  he  might  "  live  as  long  as  I  have 
done,  and  with  as  much  health,  who  continue  as  hearty 
as  a  buck,  with  a  hand  still  steady,  as  they  may  see  by 
this  writing."  To  still  a  third  he  wrote : 

77 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"  For  my  own  part,  I  do  not  find  that  I  grow  any  older.  Being 
arrived  at  seventy,  and  considering  that  by  travelling  farther 
in  the  same  road  I  should  probably  be  led  to  the  grave,  I 
stopped  short,  turned  about,  and  walked  back  again ;  which 
done  these  four  years,  you  may  now  call  me  sixty-six.  Advise 
these  old  friends  of  ours  to  follow  my  example ;  keep  up  your 
spirits,  and  that  will  keep  up  your  bodies ;  you  will  no  more 
stoop  under  the  weight  of  age  than  if  you  had  swallowed  a 
handspike." 

His  manner  of  attaining  such  a  frame  of  mind  was  sim- 
ple. "  One  means  of  becoming  content  with  one's  sit- 
uation is  the  comparing  it  with  a  worse.  Thus,  when 
I  consider  how  many  terrible  diseases  the  human  body 
is  liable  to,  I  comfort  myself  that  only  three  incurable 
ones  have  fallen  to  my  share,  viz.  :  the  gout,  the  stone, 
and  old  age ;  and  these  have  not  yet  deprived  me  of  my 
natural  cheerfulness,  my  delight  in  books,  and  enjoyment 
of  social  conversation." 

An  amusing  assistant  to  the  royal  commission,  in  giv- 
ing a  quietus  to  mesmerism,  was  the  invention,  just  at 
the  time  that  craze  was  highest,  of  the  balloon,  with  a 
consequent  shifting  of  interest  by  the  fickle  Paris  pub- 
lic. Franklin  himself  followed  the  experiments  of 
Montgolfier,  the  inventor,  with  the  closest  attention,  not 
merely  because  of  his  scientific  interest,  but  as  well 
because  of  a  personal  one.  "  The  progress  made  in  the 
management  of  balloons,"  he  told  a  correspondent,  "  has 
been  rapid.  Yet  I  fear  it  will  hardly  become  a  com- 
mon carriage  in  my  time,  though  being  easiest  of  all 
voitures  it  would  be  extremely  convenient  to  me,  now 
that  my  malady  forbids  the  use  of  old  ones  over  a  pave- 
ment." The  pain  all  motion  gave  Franklin  at  one  time 

78 


PHYSIQUE 

threatened  to  cause  his  continuance  in  France  even 
after  Congress  had  consented  to  his  return ;  for  his 
French  friends  insisted  that  he  could  not  bear  the  jour- 
ney, and  the  sufferer  himself  hesitated.  The  difficulty 
was  finally  overcome  by  the  kindness  of  Marie  Antoi- 


JACQUKS-ETIENiNK   MONTGOLFIER. 

From  an  old  French  print,  after  a  portrait  painted  by  his  daughu 


nette.  "  When  I  was  at  Passy,"  Franklin  recorded,  "  I 
could  not  bear  a  wheel  carriage  ;  and  being  discouraged 
from  my  project  of  descending  the  Seine  in  a  boat,  by 
the  difficulties  and  tediousness  of  its  navigation  in  so 
dry  a  season,  I  accepted  the  offer  of  one  of  the  King's 
litters,  carried  by  large  mules."  "  I  found  the  mo- 
tion .  .  .  did  not  much  incommode  me.  It  was 
one  of  the  Queen's,  carried  by  two  very  large  mules," 
"  which  walked  steadily  and  easily,  so  that  I  bore  the 

79 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


iS/is  (/WOM 


_J 


MOXTGOLFIKR'S   FIRST   BALLOON. 
From  the  "Town  and  Country  Magazine,"  London,  1783. 

motion  very  well."      "  I  came  to  Havre  de.  Grace  in  a 
litter,"  he  wrote  a  friend  from  Portsmouth,  "  and  hither 

80 


PHYSIQUE 

in  the  packet  boat ;  and,  instead  of  being  hurt  by  the 
journey  or  voyage,  I  really  find  myself  very  much  bet- 
ter, not  having  suffered  so  little  for  the  time  these  two 
years  past."  "  I  was  not  in  the  least  inconvenienced 
by  the  voyage,  but  my  children  and  my  friend  Mr. 
Veillard  were  very  sick."  In  this  connection  it  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  Franklin  was  apparently  never  a 
victim  to  seasickness  in  any  of  his  eight  ocean  crossings. 

His  voyage  to  America  appears  to  have  benefited  him 
as  much  as  travel  always  did  ;  he  accepted  public  offices 
and  fulfilled  their  duties,  and  he  seemed,  indeed,  to  take 
pride  in  what  strength  yet  remained  to  him,  for,  in 
showing  a  friend  a  book,  "  so  large  that  it  was  with  but 
the  greatest  difficulty  the  Doctor  was  able  to  raise  it 
from  the  low  shelf  and  lift  it  on  to  the  table,  with  that 
senile  ambition  common  to  old  people  he  insisted  on 
doing  it  himself,  and  would  permit  no  person  to  assist 
him,  merely  to  show  us  how  much  strength  he  had  re- 
maining." Yet  evidences  of  his  physical  disabilities 
were  not  wanting.  As  president  of  Pennsylvania,  he 
had  to  be  carried  to  the  state-house  in  a  litter,  and  in 
the  Federal  Convention  he  had  all  his  speeches  read  by 
his  colleague  James  Wilson,  "  it  being  inconvenient  to 
the  Doctor  to  remain  on  his  feet." 

In  1 788  a  material  change  occurred  in  his  health,  of 
which  he  sent  word  to  Ingenhousz : 

"  You  may  remember  the  cutaneous  malady  I  formerly  com- 
plained of,  and  for  which  you  and  Ur.  Pringle  favored  me 
with  prescriptions  and  advice.  It  vexed  me  near  fourteen 
years,  and  was  at  the  beginning  of  this  year  as  bad  as  ever, 
covering  almost  my  whole  body,  except  my  face  and  hands ; 

81 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

when  a  fit  of  the  gout  came  on,  without  very  much  pain,  but  a 
swelling  in  both  feet,  which  at  last  appeared  also  in  both  knees, 
and  then  in  my  hands.  As  these  swellings  increased  and  ex- 
tended, the  other  malady  diminished,  and  at  length  disap- 
peared entirely.  Those  swellings  have  some  time  since  begun 
to  fall,  and  are  now  almost  gone ;  perhaps  the  cutaneous  dis- 


JEAN   INGEXHOUSZ,    M.D. 

ease  may  return,  or  perhaps  it  is  worn  out.  I  may  hereafter 
let  you  know  what  happens.  I  am  on  the  whole  much  weaker 
than  when  it  began  to  leave  me." 

Another  twelvemonth  "  found  me  very  ill  with  a  severe 
fit  of  the  stone,  which  followed  a  fall  I  had  on  the  stone 
steps  that  lead  into  my  garden,  wherebye  I  was  much 

82 


PHYSIQUE 

bruised  and  my  wrist  sprained  so  as  to  render  me  inca- 
pable of  writing  for  several  weeks."  From  the  conse- 
quences of  this  fall  the  doctor  did  not  recover,  and 
henceforth  was  obliged  to  spend  the  most  of  his  time  in 
bed.  Of  his  health  he  wrote,  late  in  i  789 : 

"  I  can  give  you  no  good  account.  I  have  a  long  time  been 
afflicted  with  almost  constant  and  grievous  pain,  to  combat 
which  I  have  been  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  opium,  which 
indeed  has  afforded  me  some  ease  from  time  to  time,  but  then 
it  has  taken  away  my  appetite  and  so  impeded  my  digestion 
that  I  am  become  totally  emaciated,  and  little  remains  of  me 
but  a  skeleton  covered  with  a  skin." 

His  friends  urged  him  to  have  an  operation  performed, 
but  he  refused,  and  John  Adams  stated :  "  On  the  ques- 
tion, for  example,  whether  to  be  cut  for  the  stone.  The 
young,  with  a  longer  prospect  of  years,  think  these 
over-balance  the  pain  of  the  operation.  Dr.  Franklin, 
at  the  age  of  eighty,  thought  his  residuum  of  life  not 
worth  that  price.  I  should  have  thought  with  him,  even 
taking  the  stone  out  of  the  scale." 

In  April,  I  790,  Franklin  was  seized  with  the  illness 
which  terminated  his  life,  an  account  of  which  was 
drawn  up  by  his  attending  doctor,  John  Jones: 

"  The  stone,  with  which  he  had  been  afflicted  for  several  years, 
had  for  the  last  twelve  months  confined  him  chiefly  to  his  bed  ; 
and  during  the  extremely  painful  paroxysms,  he  was  obliged 
to  take  large  doses  of  laudanum  to  mitigate  his  tortures— still, 
in  the  intervals  of  pain,  he  not  only  amused  himself  with  read- 
ing and  conversing  cheerfully  with  his  family,  and  a  few  friends 
who  visited  him,  but  was  often  employed  in  doing  business  of 
a  public  as  well  as  private  nature,  with  various  persons  who 
waited  on  him  for  that  purpose :  and  in  every  instance  dis- 

83 


THE    MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

played,  not  only  that  readiness  and  disposition  of  doing  good, 
which  was  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  his  life,  but  the 
fullest  and  clearest  possession  of  his  uncommon  mental  abili- 
ties ;  and  not  unfrequently  indulged  himself  in  those  '  jeux 
d'esprit'  and  entertaining  anecdotes,  which  were  the  delight 
of  all  who  heard  him. 


JOHN  JONES,    M.D. 


"  About  sixteen  days  before  his  death  he  was  seized  with  a 
feverish  indisposition,  without  any  particular  symptoms  attend- 
ing it,  till  the  third  or  fourth  day,  when  he  complained  of  a 
pain  in  the  left  breast,  which  increased  till  it  became  extremely 
acute,  attended  with  a  cough  and  laborious  breathing.  Dur- 
ing this  state  when  the  severity  of  his  pain  drew  forth  a  groan 
of  complaint,  he  would  observe — that  he  was  afraid  he  did 
not  bear  them  as  he  ought— acknowledged  his  grateful  sense 
of  the  many  blessings  he  had  received  from  that  Supreme 
Being,  who  had  raised  him  from  small  and  low  beginnings  to 
such  high  rank  and  consideration  among  men— and  made  no 
doubt  but  his  present  afflictions  were  kindly  intended  to  wean 

84 


PHYSIQUE 

him  from  a  world,  in  which  he  was  no  longer  fit  to  act  the 
part  assigned  him.  In  this  frame  of  body  and  mind  he  con- 
tinued till  five  days  before  his  death,  when  his  pain  and  diffi- 
culty of  breathing  entirely  left  him,  and  his  family  were  flat- 
tering themselves  with  the  hopes  of  his  recovery,  when  an 
imposthumation,  which  had  formed  itself  in  his  lungs,  sud- 
denly burst,  and  discharged  a  great  quantity  of  matter,  which 
he  continued  to  throw  up  while  he  had  sufficient  strength  to 
do  it  ;  but,  as  that  failed,  the  organs  of  respiration  became 
gradually  oppressed  —  a  calm  lethargic  state  succeeded  —  and, 
on  the  i  yth  of  April,  1790,  about  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  he 
quietly  expired,  closing  a  long  and  useful  life  of  eighty-four 
years  and  three  months." 

According  to  John  Adams,  "  it  was  the  opinion  of 
his  own  physician,  Dr.  Jones,  he  fell  a  sacrifice  at  last, 
not  to  the  stone,  but  to  his  own  theory,  having  caught 
the  violent  cold  which  finally  choked  him,  by  sitting 
for  some  hours  at  a  window,  with  the  cold  air  blowing 
upon  him."  "  Nine  men  in  ten  are  suicides,"  asserted 
Poor  Richard. 


,  &***<?/f 


FACSIMILE  OF  A  POEM  IN  FRANKLIN'S  HANDWRITING. 


MEDAL  GIVEN   BY  THE  BOSTON   PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 
FROM   THE  FRANKLIN    FUND. 


Ill 


EDUCATION 

IF  the  commonly  accepted  use  of  the  term  "  educa- 
tion "  as  a  synonym  for  the  word  "  schooling  "  were 
adopted  in  the  case  of  Franklin,  there  would  be  little 
need  to  consider  this  side  of  his  personality.  "  I  was 
put  to  the  grammar-school  at  eight  years  of  age,"  he 
states,  and  remained  there  "  not  quite  one  year,  though 
in  that  time  I  had  risen  gradually  from  the  middle  of 
the  class  of  that  year  to  be  the  head  of  it,  and  further 
was  removed  into  the  next  class  above  it,  in  order  to  go 
with  that  into  the  third  at  the  end  of  the  year.  But 
my  father  in  the  meantime,  from  a  view  of  the  expense 
of  a  college  education,  which  having  so  large  a  family 
he  could  not  well  afford,  and  the  mean  living  many  so 
educated  were  afterwards  able  to  obtain — reasons  that 
he  gave  to  his  friends  in  my  hearing,  —  altered  his  first 

86 


EDUCATION 

intention,  took  me  from  the  grammar-school,  and  sent 
me  to  a  school  for  writing  and  arithmetic,  kept  by  a  then 
famous  man,  Mr.  George  Brownell,  very  successful  in  his 
profession  generally,  and  that  by  mild,  encouraging  meth- 
ods. Under  him  I  acquired  fair  writing  pretty  soon,  but 
I  failed  in  the  arithmetic,  and  made  no  progress  in  it." 
Thus  began  and  ended  all  the  regular  tuition  Frank- 
lin ever  received ;  but  slight  as  it  was,  he  never  forgot 
its  benefits,  and  in  his  will  was  the  clause : 

"  I  was  born  in  Boston,  New  England,  and  owe  my  first 
instructions  in  literature  to  the  free  grammar-schools  estab- 
lished there.  I  therefore  give  one  hundred  pounds  sterling  to 
my  executors,  to  be  by  them  .  .  .  paid  over  to  the  managers 
or  directors  of  the  free  schools  in  my  native  town  of  Boston, 
to  be  by  them  .  .  .  put  out  to  interest,  and  so  continued  at 
interest  for  ever,  which  interest  annually  shall  be  laid  out  in 
silver  medals,  and  given  as  honorary  rewards  annually  by  the 
directors  of  the  said  free  schools  belonging  to  the  said  town, 
in  such  manner  as  to  the  discretion  of  the  selectmen  of  the 
said  town  shall  seem  meet." 


Ad  vet  tifertierits. 

AT  the  Houfe  of  George  Brownell  in  Se- 
cond Street,  (formerly  the  Ho^fc  of  Mr.  John  Knight* 
dcccas'd)  is  caught,  Reading,  Wrjting,  Cyphering, -Dan- 
cing, Plain-work,  Marking,  wjth  Variety  of  Needle-work. 
Where  alfo  bcholars  may  board. 

ADVERTISEMENT  OK  GEORGE   BROWN  El. I.. 
From  the  "  Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

"  The  doors  of  Wisdom  are  never  shut,"  affirmed 
Poor  Richard,  and  if  Franklin  was  a  pupil  for  only  two 
years,  he  seems  never  to  have  ceased  to  be  a  student. 

87 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

The  same  proverb-maker  asserted  that  "  God  helps 
them  that  help  themselves,"  and  by  continuous  self- 
culture  his  creator  became  almost  encyclopedic  in  his 
knowledge,  and  one  of  the  best-informed  and  most 
learned  men  of  his  generation.  As  early  as  1756  John 
Adams  had  heard  of  "  Mr.  Franklin  of  Philadelphia,  a 
prodigious  genius,  cultivated  with  prodigious  industry." 
Franklin  advised,  "  Read  much,  but  not  too  many 
books";  but,  as  he  himself  said,  "We  may  give  Ad- 
vice, but  we  cannot  give  Conduct,"  and  during  his 
whole  life  he  was  an  omnivorous  devourer  of  books.  In 
his  autobiography  he  mentions  "  my  early  readiness  in 
learning  to  read,  which  must  have  been  very  early,  as 
I  do  not  remember  when  I  could  not  read."  The  taste 
was  the  more  remarkable  when  the  literature  at  his 
command  is  considered.  From  the  inventory  of  his 
father's  property  it  is  learned  that  Josiah  Franklin  died 
possessed  of  two  large  Bibles,  a  concordance,  Willard's 
"  Compleat  Body  of  Divinity," — as  dull  a  folio  of  nearly 
a  thousand  pages  as  was  probably  ever  printed,  written 
by  the  clergyman  who  married  Josiah  and  Abiah  Frank- 
lin,— and  "a  parcel  of  small  books,"  more  fully  de- 
scribed by  Franklin,  who  said :  "  My  father's  little 
library  consisted  of  books  in  polemic  divinity,  most  of 
which  I  read,  and  have  since  often  regretted  that,  at  a 
time  when  I  had  such  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  more 
proper  books  had  not  fallen  in  my  way."  Yet  even  in 
this  "parcel"  of  dry-as-dust  theology  the  boy  found 
some  things  to  enjoy.  "  Plutarch's  Lives  there  was,  in 
which  I  read  abundantly,  and  I  still  think  that  time 
spent  to  great  advantage.  There  was  also  a  book  of 


COTTON    MATHER. 
After  a  print  by  Henry  Pelham. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

De  Foe's,  called  an  Essay  on  Projects,  and  another  of 
Dr.  Mather's,  called  Essays  to  do  Good,  which  perhaps 


' 


the 


tfc 


<jOO0,    thie.is 

and  Defigned* 

B  V    T  U  O.S  B 

Who  pcfire  to  Anfwcf  th%  Great  END 
of  Lift,    md  to  DO    GOOD    , 
v  While,  they  .Live* 

A    p  O  0  K  rOffsrecl. 

nrfUit  Genial,  ttt«o  dlCH3^IST!ANS, 

in  a  PERSONAL  Capacity,  bt  in 

a  RBJ.ATIVE, 


tinftv  innslcrANS,  unto  LAWYERS, 
unto  Sf  ,H(  )I  '.F.MASTERS,  «n<6  Wealthy 
(SENTLEMLN,  unto  ieveral  Sons  of 
OFFICERS,  unto  CHI/RGHES,  and 
itoto  aU  SOCIF.TIES  of  a'RsHgipHf 
CUixrailer  and  Intention.  •  ,  With  Hn«tble 
PROPOSALS,  of  Unexpef«lofiab$« 
METliODS,  tb  Da  'hod  it|,|Ke  WorfcJ. 


'Vl 


!       ' 

" 


am,,  for    1yl| 

::.L°_.  j$$ 
,,    .„,  I 


TITLE-PAGE  OF   FIRST   EDITION   OF  COTTON   MATHER'S 

"  ESSAY   UPON  THE   GOOD." 

In  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

gave  me  a  turn  of  thinking  that  had  an  influence  on 
some  of  the  principal  future  events  of  my  life."  This 
little  tractate  made  so  great  an  impression  on  the  youth- 

90 


EDUCATION 

ful  mind  that,  full  seventy  years  after  reading  it,  Frank- 
lin wrote  to  the  author's  son : 

"  Permit  me  to  mention  one  little  instance,  which,  though 
it  relates  to  myself,  will  not  be  quite  uninteresting  to  you. 
When  I  was  a  boy,  I  met  with  a  book  entitled  '  Essays  to  do 
Good,'  which  I  think  was  written  by  your  father.  It  had 
been  so  little  regarded  by  a  former  possessor,  that  several 
leaves  of  it  were  torn  out ;  but  the  remainder  gave  me  such  a 
turn  of  thinking,  as  to  have  an  influence  on  my  conduct 
through  life ;  for  I  have  always  set  a  greater  value  on  the 
character  of  a  doer  of  good,  than  on  any  other  kind  of  repu- 
tation ;  and  if  I  have  been,  as  you  seem  to  think,  a  useful  citi- 
zen, the  public  owes  the  advantage  of  it  to  that  book." 

Whatever  might  be  the  paucity  of  his  father's  library, 
the  boy  had  a  natural  bent  for  reading,  and  could  not 
be  kept  from  books.  "  From  a  child,"  he  declared,  "  I 
was  fond  of  reading,  and  all  the  little  money  that  came 
into  my  hands  was  ever  laid  out  in  books.  Pleased 
with  the  Pilgrim's  Progress,  my  first  collection  was  of 
John  Bunyan's  works  in  separate  little  volumes.  I 
afterwards  sold  them  to  enable  me  to  buy  R.  Burton's 
Historical  Collections ;  they  wrere  small  chapmen's 
books,  and  cheap,  40  or  50  in  all."  The  taste  was  no 
doubt  whetted  by  the  influence  of  his  uncle  Benjamin, 
who  lived  for  a  time  in  Boston,  and  who  took  not  a  lit- 
tle interest  in  the  intellectual  development  of  his  name- 
sake. Before  the  boy  was  five  years  of  age  his  uncle 
began  sending  him  monitory  poems,  acrostics,  and  let- 
ters of  advice.  He  was  not  merely  a  confirmed  scrib- 
bler, but  a  book-collector  as  well,  and  many  years  after 
his  death  Franklin  became  possessed  of  part  of  his 
library  by  a  curious  chance. 

91 


-r*  $  <*  wsr:*'  v^  I'*yl  ^<3  P  » 


s«f.«iM-t 


t 


4 

i4 


>  ^^     ivj  flfc^^S^ •*'?»'*  ^  ^^  i'i  N£^  £   * 
\^  vi  >i    *  ^W  *^  »4  4  NB::^  >J   3  aoH  ^*  '?   * 

^lllqW*  |il«lt; 

x  ^  «  Vrt?''*L  ¥•  ^.-i*  w    5tl»   *  ^   A«f\4st    3xV^^' 

^vv?.3**v^3  §4^  s>^^4^^^1^--S- 


EDUCATION 

"  Yesterday  a  very  odd  accident  happened,"  he  wrote, 
"  which  I  must  mention  to  you,  as  it  relates  to  your  grand- 
father. A  person  that  deals  in  old  books,  of  whom  I  some- 
times buy,  acquainted  me  that  he  had  a  curious  collection  of 
pamphlets  bound  in  eight  volumes  folio,  and  twenty-four 
volumes  quarto  and  octavo,  which  he  thought,  from  the  sub- 
jects, I  might  like  to  have,  and  that  he  would  sell  them  cheap. 
I  desired  to  see  them,  and  he  brought  them  to  me.  On 
examining  I  found  that  they  contained  all  the  principal 
pamphlets  and  papers  on  public  affairs  that  had  been  printed 
here  from  the  Restoration  down  to  1 7 1 5.  In  one  of  the  blank 
leaves  at  the  beginning  of  each  volume  the  collector  had 
written  the  titles  of  the  pieces  contained  in  it,  and  the  price 
they  cost  him.  Also  notes  in  the  margin  of  many  of  the 
pieces ;  and  the  collector  I  find,  from  the  handwriting  and 
various  other  circumstances,  was  .  .  .  my  uncle  Benjamin. 
Wherefore,  I  the  more  readily  agreed  to  buy  them.  I  sup- 
pose he  parted  with  them  when  he  left  England  and  came  to 
Boston,  .  .  .  which  was  about  the  year  1716  or  1717,  now 
more  than  fifty  years  since.  In  whose  hands  they  have  been 
all  this  time  I  know  not.  The  oddity  is  that  the  bookseller, 
who  could  suspect  nothing  of  any  relation  between  me  and  the 
collector,  should  happen  to  make  me  the  offer  of  them." 


It  was  "  this  bookish  inclination  "  which  "  at  length 
determined  my  father  to  make  me  a  printer,"  Franklin 
states ;  and  one  of  the  incidental  advantages  of  the 
trade  to  him  was  that  "  I  now  had  access  to  better 
books.  An  acquaintance  with  the  apprentices  of  book- 
sellers enabled  me  sometimes  to  borrow  a  small  one, 
which  I  was  careful  to  return  soon  and  clean.  Often  I 
sat  up  in  my  room  reading  the  greatest  part  of  the 
night,  when  the  book  was  borrowed  in  the  evening  and 
to  be  returned  early  in  the  morning,  lest  it  should  be 
missed  or  wanted.  And  after  some  time  an  ingenious 
tradesman,  Mr.  Matthew  Adams,  who  had  a  pretty  col- 

93 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

lection  of  books,  and  who  frequented  our  printing-house, 
took  notice  of  me,  invited  me  to  his  library,  and  very 
kindly  lent  me  such  books  as  I  chose  to  read." 

Another  advantage  which  the  apprenticeship  brought 
the  lad  was  some  money  to  spend.  As  already  told, 
Franklin,  when  he  became  a  vegetarian,  agreed  with 
his  brother  "  that,  if  he  would  give  me,  weekly,  half  the 
money  he  paid  for  my  board,  I  would  board  myself. 
He  instantly  agreed  to  it,  and  I  presently  found  that  I 
could  save  half  what  he  paid  me.  This  was  an  addi- 
tional fund  for  buying  books."  In  this  way  the  boy 
amassed  a  considerable  library.  Though  he  "  sold 
some  of  my  books  to  raise  a  little  money  "  as  a  prelim- 
inary to  becoming  a  runaway  apprentice,  those  that 
were  left  were  in  sufficient  number  to  secure  him  notice 
from  an  important  personage.  "  The  then  governor  of 
New  York,  Burnet  (son  of  Bishop  Burnet),  hearing  from 
the  captain  that  a  young  man,  one  of  his  passengers, 
had  a  great  many  books,  desir'd  that  he  would  bring  me 
to  see  him.  .  .  .  The  Gov'r.  treated  me  with  great 
civility,  showed  me  his  library,  which  was  a  very  large 
one,  and  we  had  a  good  deal  of  conversation  about 
books  and  authors.  This  was  the  second  governor  who 
had  done  me  the  honour  to  take  notice  of  me ;  which, 
to  a  poor  boy  like  me,  was  very  pleasing." 

This  bookishness  brought  a  broadening  and  cultiva- 
tion that  made  the  boy  sensitive  to  his  previous  failure 
in  arithmetic,  and  "  now  it  was  that,  being  on  some  oc- 
casion made  ashamed  of  my  ignorance  in-figures,  which 
I  had  failed  in  learning  when  at  school,  I  toolr  Cocker's 
book  of  Arithmetick,  and  went  through  the  whole 

94 


EDUCATION 

by  myself  with  great  ease.  I  also  read  Seller's  and 
Shermy's  books  of  navigation  and  became  acquainted 
with  the  little  geometry  they  contained  ;  but  never  pro- 
ceeded far  in  that  science."  Henceforth  Franklin 


GOVERNOR  WILLIAM   BURNET  OF   NEW  YORK. 

seems  to  have  been  a  good  accountant,  and  to  have 
taken  especial  enjoyment  in  the  problems  offered  by 
mathematics.  Though  he  acknowledged  that  they 
were  "  merely  difficile  nugce,  incapable  of  any  useful 
application,"  he  ''confessed"  to  the  "late  learned  Mr. 
Logan  "  that  "  in  my  younger  days,  having  once  some 

95 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

leisure  (which  I  still  think  I  might  have  employed  more 
usefully),  I  had  amused  myself  in  making  .  .  .  magic 
squares,  and  at  length  had  acquired  such  a  knack  at  it 
that  I  could  fill  the  cells  of  any  magic  square  of  rea- 
sonable size,  with  a  series  of  numbers  as  fast  as  I  could 
write  them,  disposed  in  such  a  manner  as  that  the  sums 
of  every  row,  horizontal,  perpendicular,  or  diagonal, 
should  be  equal;  but  not  being  satisfied  with  these, 
which  I  looked  on  as  common  and  easy  things,  I  had 
imposed  on  myself  more  difficult  tasks,  and  succeeded 
in  making  other  magic  squares,  with  a  variety  of  prop- 
erties, and  much  more  curious."  What  is  more,  when 
Logan  called  his  attention  to  a  square  of  even  greater 
complexity,  "  not  being  willing  to  be  outdone  .  .  . 
even  in  the  size  of  my  square,  I  went  home,  and  made, 
that  evening,  a  magical  square  of  16,"  which  Franklin 
deemed  "  to  be  the  most  magically  magical  of  any 
magical  square  ever  made  by  any  magician."  In  this 
the  properties  were : 

"  i.  That  every  strait  row  (horizontal  or  vertical)  of  8 
numbers  added  together,  makes  260,  and  half  each  row 
half  260. 

"  2.  That  the  bent  row  of  8  numbers,  ascending  and 
descending  diagonally,  viz.  from  16  ascending  to  10,  and 
from  23  descending  to  17  ;  and  every  one  of  its  parallel  bent 
rows  of  8  numbers  make  260.— Also  the  bent  row  from  52 
descending  to  54,  and  from  43  ascending  to  45  ;  and  every  one 
of  its  parallel  bent  rows  of  8  numbers  make  260.— Also  the 
bent  row  from  45  to  43,  descending  to  the  left,  and  from  23 
to  17,  descending  to  the  right,  and  every  one  of  its  parallel 
bent  rows  of  8  numbers,  make  260.  —  Also  the  bent  row  from 
52  to  54,  descending  to  the  right,  and  from  10  to  16,  descend- 
ing to  the  left,  and  every  one  of  its  parallel  bent  rows  of  8 

96 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


numbers  make  260.  —  Also  the  parallel  bent  rows  next  to  the 
above-mentioned,  which  are  shortened  to  3  numbers  ascending, 
and  3  descending,  &c.  as  from  53  to  4  ascending,  and  from  29 
to  44  descending,  make,  with  the  2  corner  numbers,  260.— 
Also  the  2  numbers  14,  6 1  ascending,  ancl  36,  19  descending, 
with  the  lower  4  numbers  situated  like  them,  viz.  50,  i,  de- 
scending, and  32,  47,  ascending,  make  260.  —  And,  lastly,  the 
4  corner  numbers,  with  the  4  middle  numbers,  make  260." 

Not  contented  with  this,  he  "  composed  also  a  magic 
circle,  consisting  of  8  concentric  circles  and  8  radial 
rows,  filled  with  a  series  of  numbers  from  12  to  75  in- 
clusive, so  disposed  as  that  the  number  of  each  circle, 
or  each  radial  row,  being  added  to  the  central  number 
12,  they  make  exactly  360." 

The  brief  time  spent  by  Franklin  in  London  as  a 
journeyman  printer  was  very  important  to  him  in  an 
intellectual  sense,  because  of  an  opportunity  it  afforded 
him.  "  While  I  lodg'd  in  Little  Britain  I  made  an 

acquaintance  with  one 
Wilcox,  a  bookseller, 
whose  shop  was  at  the 
next  door.  He  had 
an  immense  collec- 
tion of  second-hand 
books.  Circulating 
libraries  were  not 
then  in  use ;  but  we 
agreed  that,  on  cer- 
tain reasonable  terms, 
which  I  have  now  for- 
gotten, I  might  take, 
read,  and  return  any 


«A 


4^ 


/9^ 


' 


^i  1*7  to  tXiJ 


2 


Noto 


M  Hie]  18 


1*8^ 


toisy 


66\SJ 


X1*? 


h^> 


V\ 


tefN! 


nfefej 


FRANKLIN  S    MAGIC    SQUARE   OF    SQUARES. 
From  the  "  Gentleman's  Magazine,"  1768. 


98 


EDUCATION 


FRANKLIN  S  MAGIC  CIRCLE. 

From  his  manuscript  in  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society,  Philadelphia. 


of  his  books.  This  I 
esteem'd  a  great  ad- 
vantage, and  I  made 
as  much  use  of  it  as 
I  could." 

In  this  arrange- 
ment probably  lay 
the  germ  of  one  of 
Franklin's  worthiest 
undertakings.  Upon 
his  return  to  Phila- 
delphia after  his 
London  sojourn  he 
"  form'd  most  of  my 
ingenious  acquain- 
tance into  a  club  of  mutual  improvement,"  called  the 
Junto,  of  a  half-debating  and  half-social  character, 
"  which  was  the  best  school  of  philosophy,  morality, 
and  politics  that  then  existed  in  the  province;  for  our 
queries,  which  were  read  the  week  preceding  their  dis- 
cussion, put  us  upon  reading  with  attention  upon  the 
several  subjects,  that  we  might  speak  more  to  the  pur- 
pose ;  and  here,  too,  we  acquired  better  habits  of  con- 
versation, every  thing  being  studied  in  our  rules  which 
might  prevent  our  disgusting  each  other."  About  I  730, 

"  A  proposition  was  made  by  me,  that,  since  our  books  were 
often  referr'd  to  in  our  disquisitions  upon  the  queries,  it  might 
be  convenient  to  us  to  have  them  altogether  where  we  met, 
that  upon  occasion  they  might  be  consulted  ;  and  by  thus 
clubbing  our  books  to  a  common  library,  we  should,  while  we 
lik'd  to  keep  them  together,  have  each  of  us  the  advantage  of 
using  the  books  of  all  the  other  members,  which  would  be 

99 


THE    MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

nearly  as  beneficial  as  if  each  owned  the  whole.  It  was  lik'd 
and  agreed  to,  and  we  fill'd  one  end  of  the  room  with  such 
books  as  we  could  best  spare.  The  number  was  not  so  great 
as  we  expected  ;  and  tho'  they  had  been  of  great  use,  yet  some 

HE  Subjcribers  towards  a  Library  in  \ 

•  this  City,  are  hereby  advertis'd,  tflmt  Monday  the  Firf 
of  May  enfuingy  is  the  Day  appointed  for  the  Choice  of  tie  proper 
Officers  of  the  Company  ,  for  the  follow  ing  Tear  ;  and  that  the  Meet- 
ing for  that  Purpofe  will  be  at  the  Houfe  of  Nicholas  Scull  in 
the  Market  Street,  at  ^Two  in  the  Afternoon. 

Philad.  April  20.  1732.  Jolcph  Brcintnall. 


oj  the  L&r&ry  fampctny^f 

Philadelphia,  ate  berelf  advertifetL,  that  Monday  tfa  Seventh 
<f  ifirt'enfuing;  is  the  D*y  appointed  for  the  Choice,  ef  Directors 
M$reafttter  for  the  facetting  Tear  ;  dndfwtbe  Subfcrtbersh 
'Irtrigtotbeirfift  annual  Payment  of<fe*  Sbittings  *$'**!  Atoancl- 
'Motey."  JnA  that  the  Place  and.  Ttmefoir  this  Meeiixgjw  tfafaiel 
'^  tb  rfMay;  will  be  at  the  ffetffe  tf  Mr.  Loujs  Timothee,  <&here 
the  Library?'  ^M  *»  &#  4ty  next  the  Bo&'s-ffead  tfauirnlat 
'tfvwifithe  Afternoon.  Jofeph  Breintftal,  Seer'. 

'•    N.  B.  tfhe  Subfcribers  are  defred  to  remember  the  P  entity  'kp* 
Non-payment  ofthe-tfefrStiUingtjqo*  tbe  Day  fippointej.'  "•  ;    '» 


THE  TWO   EARLIEST  ADVERTISEMENTS  COXCERXIXG    THE 

LIBRARY  COMPANY  OF   PHILADELPHIA. 
From  Fr  inklin's  "  Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

inconveniences  occurring  for  want  of  due  care  of  them,  the 
collection,  after  about  a  year,  was  separated,  and  each  took 
his  books  home  again. 

"  And  now  I  set  on  foot  my  first  project  of  a  public  nature, 
that  for  a  subscription  library.  I  drew  up  the  proposals,  got 
them  put  into  form  by  our  great  scrivener,  Brockden,  and,  by 
the  help  of  my  friends  in  the  Junto,  procured  fifty  subscribers 
of  forty  shillings  each  to  begin  with,  and  ten  shillings  a  year 
for  fifty  years,  the  term  our  company  was  to  continue.  "\Ve 
afterwards  obtain'd  a  charter,  the  company  being  increased  to 

100 


EDUCATION 

one  hundred ;  this  was  the  mother  of  all  the  North  American 
subscription  libraries,  now  so  numerous.  It  is  become  a  great 
thing  itself,  and  continually  increasing.  These  libraries  have 
improved  the  general  conversation  of  the  Americans,  made 
the  common  tradesmen  and  farmers  as  intelligent  as  most 
gentlemen  from  other  countries,  and  perhaps  have  contributed 
in  some  degree  to  the  stand  so  generally  made  throughout  the 
colonies  in  defence  of  their  privileges." 

After  the  library  was  well  started,  Franklin  continued 
to  work  for  it  in  many  ways.  He  aided  it  to  obtain 
books  from  Europe,  served  as  secretary  for  several 
years,  and  was  for  long  a  director;  but  the  institution 
amply  repaid  his  trouble,  for,  in  his  own  words :  "  This 
library  afforded  me  the  means  of  improvement  by  con- 
stant study,  for  which  I  set  apart  an  hour  or  two  each 
day,  and  thus  repair'd  in  some  degree  the  loss  of  the 
learned  education  my  father  once  intended  for  me. 
Reading  was  the  only  amusement  I  allow'd  myself." 
In  the  last  year  of  his  life  the  Library  Company  out- 
grew its  quarters,  and  he  was  asked  by  the  then  board 
of  trustees,  in  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  people 
of  Philadelphia  were  "  indebted  to  Dr.  Franklin  for  the 
first  idea  as  well  as  execution  of  the  plan  of  a  Public 
Library,"  to  write  an  inscription  to  be  placed  in  the  new 
building,  which  should  "  perpetuate  a  grateful  remem- 
brance of  it."  Franklin  accordingly  prepared  a  draft, 
but  carefully  omitted  "  any  mention  of  himself  in  the 
proposed  Inscription,"  and  he  even  "  wrote  it  at  first 
without  the  words  l  cheerfully,  and  at  the  instance  of 
one  of  them.' '  However,  in  compliance  with  the  urg- 
ing of  the  members,  he  added  them,  "  though  he  still 
thinks  it  would  be  better  without  them."  The  commit- 

7*  101 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

tee  accepted  his  essay,  but  inserted  a  line  properly  com- 
memorating his  share. 

As  Franklin  was  instrumental  in  founding  a  circulat- 
ing library,  that  those  not  possessing  books  might  obtain 
the  use  of  them,  so  he  made  his  own  collection  of  books 
serve  a  similar  purpose.  But  he  seems  to  have  been  as 
heedless  a  lender  of  books  as  the  proverbial  borrower  is, 
and  recurrent  advertisements  in  his  paper  show  his 
lapses  of  memory,  and  his  attempts  to  jog  the  equally 
forgetful  minds  of  those  he  had  obliged. 

"  The  Person  that  borrow'd  B.  Franklin's  Law-Book  of  this 
Province,  is  hereby  desired  to  return  it.  he  having  forgot  to 
whom  he  lent  it." 

"  Lent  some  time  since  a  Book  entitled  Campbell's  Vitruvius 
Brittannico's,  the  Person  who  has  it  is  desired  to  return  it  to 
the  Printer  hereof.  Also  the  first  Volume  of  Clarendon's 
History." 

"  Lent  above  a  Twelvemonth  ago,  the  second  Vol.  of  Select 
Trials,  for  Murders,  Robberies,  Rapes,  Sodomy,  Coining, 
Frauds,  and  other  Offences,  at  the  Sessions-House  in  the 
Old-Bailey :  Which  not  being  return'd  to  the  Owner,  he 
desires  the  Person  who  has  the  Book  in  possession,  to  send  it 
to  the  Printer  of  this  Paper." 

"  Lent  to  Capt.  Lawrie  (and  left  by  him  in  the  Hands  of 
some  of  his  Acquaintance  in  Philadelphia)  the  second  Volume 
of  State  Trials,  wrote  on  the  Title-Page,  William  Shaw.  The 
Person  who  has  it,  is  requested  to  bring  it  to  the  Printer 
hereof." 

"  Lent,  and  forgot  to  whom,  Wood's  Institutes  of  the  Laws 
of  England,  Folio.  The  Person  that  has  it,  is  desired  to 
return  it  to  the  Printer  hereof." 

"  Lent,  but  forgot  to  whom,  the  second  Volume  of  Pamela ; 
also  the  first  Volume  of  the  Turkish  Spy.  The  persons  that 
have  them,  are  desired  to  send  them  to  the  Post-Office." 

102 


EDUCATION 


Franklin's  counsel  to  a  woman  friend  probably  gives 
his  own  system  of  reading: 

"  I  would  advise  you,"  he  said,  "  to  read  with  a  pen  in  your 
hand,  and  enter  in  a  little  book  short  hints  of  what  you  find 
that  is  curious,  or  that  may  be  useful ;  for  this  will  be  the  best 


; 


FRANKLIN'S  ACCOUNT  WITH  THE  LIBRARY  COMPANY 

OF   PHILADELPHIA. 
From  his  ledger  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 

method  of  imprinting  such  particulars  in  your  memory,  where 
they  will  be  ready,  either  for  practice  on  some  future  occasion, 
if  they  are  matters  of  utility,  or  at  least  to  adorn  and  improve 
your  conversation,  if  they  are  rather  points  of  curiosity.  And 

103 


! 


^ 


V. 


EDUCATION 


)MOUU 


as  many  of  the  terms  of 

science  are  such,  as  you  *  to«or  «£«*«-  PRIt-ilFJLPHUV  Youth 

cannot  have  met  with  in  ^  in' \1BCr\\\! 

your  common  reading,  ^  nu,%  ,|ut,.(i,iiv, 

and    may  therefore   be  A; -tin  fnn.mcrof  UF\HMi\  111  \\KUY 

unacquainted     with,    I  *>««  ^ '»'"»  Nmnfur. 

think  it  would  be  well  IVs ' 

•     *\Yittl  It    ii*t*£i;<it   fti\  til    4*  /M  ft 

for  you  to  have  a  good  js  j, 

dictionary   at   hand,  to  .    \mi 

consult        immediately  \?ui  vhidul^  \\nMv  t>f«lits 

when  you  meet  with  a  *"  mm  ««*i<-"«d  "«<«mt™ii  -:*i 
j    J  TN'itrit  S'TONKoF  \\ttoir  •!'(* 
word  you  do  not  com-  \\v  IWK   i!«  *i 
prehend      the      precise  iii^rimTvlisitlVI-T^Vca'K'r, 
meaning  of.     This  may  \n:  Dnm:   \fIHCI\X\fX, 
at    first    seem    trouble- 
some and  interrupting  ;  THE  INSCRIPTION  FOR  THE  LIBRARY  COM- 

.  .       .  111  PANY  ACTUALLY    ADOPTED    BY    THE 

but  it  is  a  trouble  that  TRUSTEES. 

will   daily   diminish,  as 

you  will  daily  find  less  and  less  occasion  for  your  dictionary, 

as  you  become  more  acquainted  with  the  terms ;  and  in  the 

mean  time  you  will  read  with  more  satisfaction,  because  with 

more  understanding. 

"When  any  point  occurs,  in  which  you  would  be  glad  to 
have  farther  information  than  your  book  affords  you,  I  beg 
you  would  not  in  the  least  apprehend  that  I  should  think  it 
a  trouble  to  receive  and  answer  your  questions.  It  will  be  a 
pleasure,  and  no  trouble.  For  though  I  may  not  be  able,  out 
of  my  own  little  stock  of  knowledge,  to  afford  you  what  you 
require,  I  can  easily  direct  you  to  the  books,  where  it  may 
most  readily  be  found." 

His  own  experience  served  to  teach  Franklin  that  a 
strong  mind  needs  no  schooling  to  develop  it,  and  that 
a  poor  mind  is  not  strengthened  by  study.  Poor  Rich- 
ard made  merry  over  the  "  many  witty  men  whose 
brains  cannot  fill  their  bellies,"  and  over  those  who 
"  would  live  by  their  Wits,  but  break  for  want  of 
stock."  "  A  learned  blockhead  is  a  greater  blockhead 

105 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

than  an  ignorant  one,"  he  asserted,  and  claimed  that  "of 
learned  fools  I  have  seen  ten  times  ten ;  of  unlearned 
wise  men,  I  have  seen  a  hundred."  Yet  Franklin  was 
far  from  showing  the  usual  contempt  of  the  self-taught 
man  for  an  academic  education.  On  his  settling  in  Phila- 
delphia he  found  "  two  things  which  I  regretted,"  and 
one  of  these  was  "  there  being  no  provision  .  .  .  for 
the  compleat  education  of  youth.  ...  I  therefore  in 
1743  drew  up  a  proposal  for  establishing  an  academy," 
but  the  country  then  being  engaged  in  a  war,  he  "  let 
the  scheme  lie  for  a  time  dormant."  Peace  made, 
he  resumed  the  project  in  good  earnest.  "  The  first 
step  was  to  associate  in  the  design  a  number  of  active 
friends ;  .  .  .  the  next  was  to  write  and  publish  a 
pamphlet,  entitled  '  Proposals  Relating  to  the  Educa- 
tion of  Youth  in  Pennsylvania.'  '  In  this  he  outlined 
what  presumably  was  his  ideal  of  an  education.  There 
was  to  be  a  house  in  a  high  and  dry  situation,  not  far 
from  a  river,  having  a  garden,  orchard,  meadow,  and  a 
field  or  two,  a  library  and  an  equipment  of  scientific 
apparatus ;  the  scholars  were  to  live  plainly  and  tem- 
perately, and  to  be  "  frequently  exercised  in  running, 
leaping,  wrestling  and  swimming."  "As  to  their 
studies,  it  would  be  well  if  they  could  be  taught  every 
thing  that  is  useful  and  every  thing  that  is  ornamental. 
But  art  is  long  and  their  time  is  short.  It  is  therefore 
proposed,  that  they  learn  those  things  that  are  likely  to 
be  most  useful  and  most  ornamental,  regard  being  had 
for  the  several  professions  for  which  they  are  intended." 
Franklin's  own  predilection  "  went  no  further  than  to 
procure  the  means  of  a  good  English  education,"  and 

106 


EDUCATION 


he  particularly  insisted  in  his  pamphlet  that  the  rector 
of  the  school  should  be  "  a  correct,  pure  speaker  and 
writer  of  English." 


PROPOSALS 

RELATING  TO  THE 

EDUCATION 

0  F 

YOUTH 

1  N 

PENS1LFANIA. 


P  H  I  LAD  E  L  P  HIA: 
Printed  in  the  Year,  M.DCC,  XLIX, 


TITLE-PAGE  OF   FRANKLIN'S   PROPOSAL  RELATING  TO 

THE   EDUCATION   OF  YOUTH. 
In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

"  A  number  of  my  friends  to  whom  I  communicated  the 
proposal  concurred  with  me  in  these  ideas ;  but  .  .  .  other 
persons  of  wealth  and  learning,  whose  subscription  and  coun- 

107 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

tenance  we  should  need,  being  of  opinion  that  it  ought  to 
include  the  learned  languages,  I  submitted  my  judgment  to 
theirs,  retaining,  however,  a  strong  prepossession  in  favour  of 
my  first  plan  and  resolving  to  preserve  as  much  of  it  as  I  could 
and  to  nourish  the  English  school  by  every  means  in  my 
power." 

In  aid  of  this  he  published,  in  1751,  "A  Scheme  of  an 
English  School,"  and,  as  president  of  the  trustees,  did 
what  he  could  to  prevent  his  purpose  from  being  stifled 
by  an  undue  regard  for  classical  learning.  But  though, 
in  the  words  of  a  contemporary,  Franklin  was  the  "  soul 
of  the  whole  "  project,  he  could  not  prevent  the  waning 
of  the  one  or  the  waxing  of  the  other.  The  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Smith,  who  became  rector  by  Franklin's  choice  and 
influence,  gave  him  no  aid  in  his  fight  against  the  dead 
languages,  and  allowed  the  English  school  to  lapse.  As 
if  this  were  not  a  sufficient  miscarriage  of  Franklin's 
hopes,  the  academy,  as  it  grew  into  a  college,  became 
an  organ  of  politics,  and  a  hotbed  from  which  issued 
many  of  the  pamphlet  and  newspaper  attacks  on  its 
chief  founder  and  the  party  with  which  he  was  associ- 
ated, the  rector  himself  being  the  most  active  in  the 
paper  war.  With  far  more  bitterness  than  was  usual 
with  Franklin,  he  wrote  of  these  attacks : 

"  Before  I  left  Philadelphia,  everything  to  be  done  in  the 
Academy  was  privately  preconcerted  in  a  Cabal  without  my 
Knowledge  or  Participation  and  accordingly  carried  into 
Execution.  The  Schemes  of  Public  Parties  made  it  seem 
requisite  to  lessen  my  Influence  wherever  it  could  be  lessened. 
The  Trustees  had  reap'd  the  full  Advantage  of  my  Head, 
Hands,  Heart  and  Purse,  in  getting  through  the  first  Diffi- 
culties of  the  Design,  and  when  they  thought  they  could  do 
without  me,  they  laid  me  aside.  I  wish  Success  to  the 

108 


EDUCATION 

Schools  nevertheless  and  am  sorry  to  hear  that  the  whole 
Number  of  Scholars  does  not  at  present  exceed  an  hundred 
(S:  forty." 

After  the  Revolution,  when  the  old  local  contests 
were  dead  and  buried,  Franklin,  upon  his  return  to 
America,  received  an  address  of  welcome  from  the  in- 
stitution he  had  been  so  largely  instrumental  in  found- 
ing, now  become  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
was  promptly  elected  president  of  the  trustees,  the  same 
position  he  had  held  almost  fifty  years  before.  His 
views  on  the  subject  of  ancient  and  modern  learning 
had  not  changed,  however,  and  almost  the  last  paper 
ever  penned  by  him  was  one  entitled  "  Observations 
relative  to  the  intentions  of  the  original  founders  of  the 
Academy  in  Philadelphia,"  which  is  a  plea  for  an  Eng- 
lish rather  than  a  classical  education,  and  which,  in  his 
usual  happy  manner,  he  brought  to  an  end  with  an 
anecdote,  to  point  his  argument. 

"There  is  in  mankind,"  he  wrote,  "an  unaccountable 
prejudice  in  favor  of  ancient  customs  and  habitudes,  which 
inclines  to  a  continuance  of  them  after  the  circumstances 
which  formerly  made  them  useful  cease  to  exist.  A  multitude 
of  instances  might  be  given,  but  it  may  suffice  to  mention 
one.  Hats  were  once  thought  a  useful  part  of  dress ;  they 
kept  the  head  warm  and  screened  it  from  the  violent  impres- 
sion of  the  sun's  rays,  and  from  the  rain,  snow,  hail, 
etc.  .  .  . 

"  Gradually,  however,  as  the  wearing  of  wigs  and  hair 
nicely  dressed  prevailed,  the  putting  on  of  hats  was  disused 
by  genteel  people,  lest  the  curious  arrangements  of  the  curls 
and  powdering  should  be  disordered,  and  umbrellas  began  to 
supply  their  place ;  yet  still  our  considering  the  hat  as  a  part 
of  the  dress  continues  so  far  to  prevail  that  a  man  of  fashion 

ICQ 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


THE   REVEREND   WILLIAM   SMITH! 
After  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  John  H.  Hrinton. 

is  not  thought  dressed  without  having  one,  or  something  like 
one,  about  him,  which  he  carries  under  his  arm.  So  that 
there  are  a  multitude  of  the  politer  people  in  all  the  courts 
in  capital  cities  of  Europe  who  have  never,  nor  their  fathers 
before  them,  worn  a  hat  otherwise  than  as  a  chapeau  bras, 
though  the  utility  of  such  a  mode  of  wearing  it  is  by  no 

1  1O 


EDUCATION 

means  apparent,  and  it  is  attended  not  only  with  some  expense 
hut  with  a  degree  of  constant  trouble. 

"  The  still  prevailing  custom  of  having  schools  for  teach- 
ing generally  our  children  in  these  days  the  Latin  and  Greek 
languages  I  consider  therefore  in  no  other  light  than  as  the 
cJiapeau  bras  of  modern  literature." 

The  Philadelphia  Academy  was  only  the  principal  of 
Franklin's  endeavors  to  foster  education,  and  he  gave 
time  and  money  in  aid  of  several  institutions.  With 
others,  he  labored  to  make  education  commoner  by 
establishing  an  "  English  school  at  Reading,  York, 
Easton,  Lancaster,  Hanover  and  Skippack."  He  was 
a  member  of  a  "  Society  for  the  Education  of  the  Ger- 
mans "  in  Pennsylvania.  In  1 760  he  became  one  of 
what  were  termed  "  Dr.  Bray's  Associates,"  having  for 
an  object  the  founding  of  schools  for  the  education  of 
negroes  and  Indians,  and  he  served  for  a  time  as  chair- 
man of  the  society.  After  the  Revolution  he  outlined 
in  a  letter  to  Washington  a  scheme  for  the  improvement 
of  free  negroes,  which  included  a  "  Committee  of  Edu- 
cation "  that  was  to  "  superintend  the  school  instruction 
of  the  children  of  free  blacks."  It  is  amusing  to  note 
that  once  he  was  made  to  contribute  to  an  educational 
scheme  of  which  he  t  disapproved.  Whitefield,  the 
itinerant  preacher,  was  "  inspir'd  "  by  a  sight  of  the 
miserable  situation  "  of  the  new  colonists  in  Georgia, 
with  the  idea  of  building  an  Orphan  House  there,"  in 
which  the  "  helpless  children  "  might  be  "  supported 
and  educated." 

"  I  did  not  disapprove  of  the  design,  but,  as  Georgia  was 
then  destitute  of  materials  and  workmen,  and  it  was  proposed 

1  1  1 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

to  send  them  from  Philadelphia  at  a  great  expense,  I  thought 
it  would  have  been  better  to  have  built  the  house  here,  and 


PART  OF   FIRST    PAGE    OF   THE  CONSTITUTION   OF  THE 

PHILADELPHIA    ACADEMY    AS    DRAWN    UP    BY 

FRANKLIN     AND     FRANCIS,     1749. 

In  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

brought  the  children  to  it.  This  I  advis'd ;  but  he  was  reso- 
lute in  his  first  project,  rejected  my  counsel,  and  I  therefore 
refus'd  to  contribute.  I  happened  soon  after  to  attend  one 

112 


EDUCATION 

of  his  sermons,  in  the  course  of  which  I  perceived  he  intended 
to  finish  with  a  collection,  and  I  silently  resolved  he  should 


THE  LAST   PAGE. 

get  nothing  from  me.  I  had  in  my  pocket  a  handful  of 
copper  money,  three  or  four  silver  dollars,  and  five  pistoles 
in  gold.  As  he  proceeded  I  began  to  soften,  and  concluded 
to  give  the  coppers.  Another  stroke  of  his  oratory  made  me 
asham'd  of  that,  and  determin'd  me  to  give  the  silver;  and  he 
finished  so  admirably,  that  I  empty 'd  my  pocket  wholly  into 
the  collector's  dish,  gold  and  all." 

8 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

An  interesting  educational  view  he  held  was  on 
women's  training,  and  one  far  in  advance  not  merely 
of  his  time,  but  even  of  to-day.  Having  established  a 
printer  in  South  Carolina  on  a  profit-sharing  agree- 
ment, his  decease  threatened  a  loss  to  Franklin ;  but 

"  The  business  was  continued  by  his  widow,  who,  being  born 
and  bred  in  Holland,  where,  as  I  have  been  inform'd,  the 
knowledge  of  accounts  makes  a  part  of  female  education,  she 
not  only  sent  me  as  clear  a  state  as  she  could  find  of  the 
transactions  past,  but  continued  to  account  with  the  greatest 
regularity  and  exactness  every  quarter  afterwards,  and  man- 
aged the  business  with  such  success,  that  she  not  only  brought 
up  reputably  a  family  of  children,  but,  at  the  expiration  of  the 
term,  was  able  to  purchase  of  me  the  printing-house,  and 
establish  her  son  in  it. 

"  I  mention  this  affair  chiefly  for  the  sake  of  recommending 
that  branch  of  education  for  our  young  females,  as  likely  to 
be  of  more  use  to  them  and  their  children,  in  case  of  widow- 
hood, than  either  music  or  dancing,  by  preserving  them 
from  losses  by  imposition  of  crafty  men,  and  enabling  them 
to  continue,  perhaps,  a  profitable  mercantile  house,  with  es- 
tablish'd  correspondence,  till  a  son  is  grown  up  fit  to  under- 
take and  go  on  with  it,  to  the  lasting  advantage  and  enrich- 
ing of  the  family." 

Franklin  put  more  stress  on  this  practical  training  for 
women  than  he  did  on  even  the  elements  of  education. 
Though  he  told  his  wife  that  he  wished  his  daughter 
Sally  would  "  be  a  little  more  careful  of  her  spelling," 
of  one  correspondent  he  asked  :  "  Why  do  you  never 
write  to  me?  I  used  to  love  to  read  your  letters,  and 
I  regret  your  long  silence.  They  were  seasoned  with 
good  sense  and  friendship,  and  even  your  spelling 
pleased  me.  Polly  knows  I  think  the  worst  spelling 

114 


EDUCATION 

the  best."  So,  when  Jane  Mecom  asked  him  to  "  pray 
forgive  the  very  bad  spelling,  and  every  other  defect, 
and  don't  let  it  mortify  you  that  such  a  scrawl  came 
from  your  sister,"  he  answered  :  "  You  need  not  be  con- 
cerned in  writing  to  me  about  your  bad  spelling,  for,  in 
my  opinion,  as  our  alphabet  now  stands,  bad  spelling, 
or  what  is  called  so,  is  generally  the  best,  as  conform- 
ing to  the  sound  of  the  letters  and  of  the  words."  Then, 
as  usual,  to  reinforce  his  own  opinion,  he  goes  on  with  a 
story  : 

"  A  gentleman  received  a  letter,  in  which  were  these  words : 
Not  finding  Brown  at  horn,  I  delivered  your  meseg  to  his  yf. 
The  gentleman,  finding  it  bad  spelling,  and  therefore  not  very 
intelligible,  called  his  lady  to  help  him  read  it.  Between  them 
they  picked  out  the  meaning  of  all  but  the  yf,  which  they 
could  not  understand.  The  lady  proposed  calling  her  cham- 
bermaid, '  because  Betty,'  says  she,  '  has  the  best  knack  at 
reading  bad  spelling  of  any  one  I  know.'  Betty  came,  and 
was  surprised  that  neither  sir  nor  madam  could  tell  what  yf 
was.  '  Why,'  says  she,  '  yf  spells  wife;  what  else  can  it 
spell?'  And,  indeed,  it  is  a  much  better,  as  well  as  shorter 
method  of  spelling  wife,  than  doiibleyou,  i,  ef,  e,  which  in  reality 
spell  doubleyifey" 

"  I  think,"  his  sister  replied,  "  sir  and  madam  were 
very  deficient  in  sagacity  that  they  could  not  find  out 
j/as  well  as  Betty,  but  sometimes  the  Betties  have  the 
brightest  understanding." 

As  this  would  suggest,  Franklin  early  became  a 
spelling-reformer,  and  went  so  far  as  to  prepare  a  new 
alphabet,  thinking  a  "reformation  not  only  necessary, 
but  practicable,"  though  he  foresaw  that  it  must  come 
gradually,  if  at  all.  And  as  one  step  toward  making 

"5 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

clear  the  absurdity  of  English  spelling,  he  drew  up  his 
"  Petition  of  the  Letter  Z,"  in  which  it  complains: 

"That  he  is  not  only  actually  placed  at  the  tail  of  the 
Alphabet,  when  he  had  as  much  right  as  any  other  to  be  at 
the  head;  but  is  by  the  injustice  of  his  enemies  totally 
excluded  from  the  word  WISE ;  and  his  place  injuriously 


THE  PHILADELPHIA  ACADEMY. 

From  a  pencil-drawing  made  by  Du  Simitiere,  in  the  possession 
of  the  Library  Company  of  Philadelphia. 

filled  by  a  little  hissing,  crooked,  serpentine,  venomous  letter, 
called  S,  when  it  must  be  evident  to  your  worship,  and  to  all 
the  world,  that  W,  I,  S,  E,  do  not  spell  Wize,  but  Wise. 

"  Your  petitioner  therefore  prays,  that  the  Alphabet  may  by 
your  censorial  authority  be  reversed ;  and  that  in  considera- 
tion of  his  long-suffering  and  patience  he  may  be  placed  at 
the  head  of  it ;  that  s  may  be  turned  out  of  the  word  Wise, 
and  the  petitioner  employed  instead  of  him." 

As  his  attitude  toward  the  classics  suggests,  Franklin 
did  not  set  a  high  value  on  college  training.  One  of 
Mrs.  Dogood's  letters,  contributed  by  the  printer's 
apprentice  to  his  brother's  newspaper  shortly  after  his 
father  had  reached  the  decision  not  to  send  his  son  to 
Harvard,  discusses  that  "  Temple  of  Learning  "  and  the 
New  England  tendency  of  "  every  Peasant,  who  had  the 
wherewithal  ...  to  send  one  of  his  Children  at  least 

116 


EDUCATION 

to  this  famous  Place,"  in  which,  as  "  most  of  them  con- 
sulted their  own  Purses  instead  of  their  Childrens 
Capacities,  ...  I  observed,  a  great  many,  yea,  the 
most  part  of  those  who  were  travelling  thither,  were 
little  better  than  Dunces  and  Blockheads,"  so  that, 
after  graduation,  "  many  of  them  from  henceforth  for 
want  of  Patrimony,  liv'd  as  poor  as  Church  Mice,  being 
unable  to  dig,  and  asham'd  to  beg,  and  to  live  by  their 
Wits  it  was  impossible."  Sixty-two  years  after  this 
was  written,  in  a  little  account  of  the  American  Indians, 
Franklin  told  a  story  evidently  intended  to  illustrate  his 
averment  that  "  most  of  the  learning  in  use  is  of  no 
great  use,"  and  to  show  the  difference  between  book- 
knowledge  and  real  knowledge.  At  an  Indian  treaty  in 
I  744  he  relates : 

"  After  the  principal  business  was  settled,  the  commissioners 
from  Virginia  acquainted  the  Indians  by  a  speech  that  there 
was  at  Williamsburg  a  college,  with  a  fund  for  educating 
Indian  youth ;  and  that,  if  the  Six  Nations  would  send  down 
half  a  dozen  of-  their  young  lads  to  that  college,  the  govern- 
ment would  take  care  that  they  should  be  well  provided  for, 
and  instructed  in  all  the  learning  of  the  white  people.  .  .  . 
*  We  are  convinced,'  the  Indians  replied,  *  that  you  mean  to  do 
us  good  by  your  proposal,  and  we  thank  you  heartily.  But 
you,  who  are  wise,  must  know  that  different  nations  have  dif- 
ferent conceptions  of  things ;  and  you  will  therefore  not  take 
it  amiss,  if  our  ideas  of  this  kind  of  education  happen  not  to 
be  the  same  with  yours.  We  have  had  some  experience  of 
it ;  several  of  our  young  people  were  formerly  brought  up  at 
the  colleges  of  the  northern  provinces ;  they  were  instructed 
in  all  your  sciences ;  but  when  they  came  back  to  us  they  were 
bad  runners,  ignorant  of  every  means  of  living  in  the  woods, 
unable  to  bear  cold  or  hunger,  knew  neither  how  to  build  a 
cabin,  take  a  deer,  nor  kill  an  enemy,  spoke  our  language 
imperfectly,  were  therefore  neither  fit  for  hunters,  warriors, 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

nor  counsellors  ;  they  were  totally  good  for  nothing.  We  are 
however  not  the  less  obliged  by  your  kind  offer,  though  we 
decline  accepting  it ;  and,  to  show  our  grateful  sense  of  it,  if 
the  gentlemen  of  Virginia  will  send  us  a  dozen  of  their  sons, 
we  will  take  great  care  of  their  education,  instruct  them  in  all 
we  know,  and  make  men  of  them.'  ' 


In  a  more  concrete  form,  too,  Franklin  testified  to  the 
slight  value  he  placed  upon  college  training.  He  saw 
to  it  that  both  his  son  William  and  his  nephew  James 
were  properly  taught,  but  he  sent  neither  to  a  university. 
When  William  Franklin  put  his  son  into  the  Pennsyl- 
vania College,  the  grandfather  did  not  hesitate  to  with- 
draw him  that  he  might  take  him  to  France,  thus  ending 
his  further  education.  So,  too,  with  his  other  grandson, 
though  having  a  choice  of  all  the  universities  of  Europe, 
he  gave-  him  only  an  ordinary  education  at  a  school  in 
Geneva. 

Joke  as  Franklin  would,  however,  at  "  Mr.  Fogg," 
who  explains  "  English  by  Greek,"  and  at  the  man  who 
"  was  so  learned,  that  he  could  name  a  horse  in  nine 
languages :  so  ignorant,  that  he  bought  a  cow  to  ride 
on,"  one  of  the  compliments  which  especially  pleased 
him  was  the  recognition  of  his  contributions  to  science 
by  the  colleges.  When  Yale  and  Harvard  both  gave 
him  the  degree  of  master  of  arts,  he  was  proud  that 
"  without  studying  at  any  college,  I  came  to  partake  of 
their  honours "  ;  and  when  the  Universities  of  St. 
Andrews,  Edinburgh,  and  Oxford  in  succession  con- 
ferred on  him  the  degrees  of  LL.  D.  or  D.  C.  L.,  he  was 
heedful  to  advertise  the  new  honors  on  the  title-pages 
of  his  books. 

us 


EDUCATION 

Franklin's  disapproval  of  the  dead  languages  was  not 
akin  to  that  of  the  fox  for  the  grapes.  Though  the 
boy  had  only  one  year  at  the  Boston  grammar-school, 
most  of  the  Dogood  letters  were  headed  by  a  quotation 
from  Cicero,  Seneca,  Terence,  or  some  other  Latin 

.:,      /^*^  ^v 


SCHOOL  BILL  FOR   FRANKLIN'S   NEPHEW  AND   SON. 
From  the  original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 

author  of  repute.  In  the  years  following,  however,  he 
seems  to  have  paid  more  attention  to  other  tongues, 
and  allowed  his  knowledge  of  Latin  to  grow  rusty. 
He  says  in  his  autobiography : 

"  I  had  begun  in  1733  to  study  languages ;  I  soon  made  my- 
self so  much  a  master  of  the  French  as  to  be  able  to  read  the 
books  with  ease.  I  then  undertook  the  Italian.  An  acquain- 

119 


THE   MANY-SIDED    FRANKLIN 

tance,  who  was  also  learning  it,  us'd  often  to  tempt  me  to 
play  chess  with  him.  Finding  this  took  up  too  much  of  the 
time  I  had  to  spare  for  study,  I  at  length  refus'd  to  play  any 
more,  unless  on  this  condition,  that  the  victor  in  every  game 
should  have  the  right  to  impose  a  task,  either  in  parts  of  the 
grammar  to  be  got  by  heart,  or  in  translations,  etc.,  which 
tasks  the  vanquish'd  was  to  perform  on  honour,  before  our  next 
meeting.  As  we  play'd  pretty  equally,  we  thus  beat  one  another 
into  that  language.  I  afterwards  with  a  little  painstaking,  ac- 
quir'd  as  much  of  the  Spanish  as  to  read  their  books  also. 

"  But  when  I  had  attained  an  acquaintance  with  the  French, 
Italian,  and  Spanish,  I  was  surprised  to  find  on  looking  over 
a  Latin  Testament,  that  I  understood  more  of  that  language 
than  I  had  imagined ;  which  encouraged  me  to  apply  myself 
again  to  the  study  of  it,  and  I  met  with  the  more  success,  as 
those  preceding  languages  had  greatly  smoothed  my  way. 
From  these  circumstances,  I  have  thought  there  was  some  in- 
consistency in  our  common  mode  of  teaching  languages.  We 
are  told  that  it  is  proper  to  begin  first  with  Latin,  and  having 
acquired  that,  it  will  be  more  easy  to  attain  those  modern 
languages  which  are  derived  from  it ;  and  yet  we  do  not  begin 
with  the  Greek,  in  order  more  easily  to  acquire  the  Latin.  It 
is  true  that  if  we  can  clamber  and  get  to  the  top  of  a  staircase 
without  using  the  steps,  we  shall  more  easily  gain  them  in 
descending ;  but  certainly  if  we  begin  with  the  lowest,  we 
shall  with  more  ease  ascend  to  the  top ;  and  I  would  there- 
fore offer  it  to  the  consideration  of  those  who  superintend  the 
education  of  our  youth,  whether,  since  many  of  those  who 
begin  with  the  Latin,  quit  the  same  after  spending  some  years 
without  having  made  any  great  proficiency,  and  what  they 
have  learned  becomes  almost  useless,  so  that  their  time  has 
been  lost,  it  would  not  have  been  better  to  have  begun  with 
the  French,  proceeding  to  the  Italian,  etc.  For,  tho',  after 
spending  the  same  time,  they  should  quit  the  study  of  lan- 
guages and  never  arrive  at  the  Latin,  they  would,  however, 
have  acquired  another  tongue  or  two  that  being  in  modern  use 
might  be  serviceable  to  them  in  common  life." 

In  thus  acquiring  languages,  Franklin  was  far  from 
learning  to  speak  or  even  to  write  them.  During  his 

120 


M-P1* 
»l-l^if£i;i 

•  fri    §     1&   „  '    ^ 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

first  trip  to  France,  in  1767,  he  was  compelled  to  rely 
on  an  interpreter  in  his  social  intercourse,  and  it  was 
probably  on  this  visit  that  his  lack  of  facility  in  French 
occasioned  an  amusing  incident.  Franklin  attended 
one  of  the  meetings  of  the  French  Academy,  and  not 
being  able  to  understand  the  speaker,  yet  not  choosing 
to  show  it,  he  adopted  the  subterfuge  of  watching  a 
friend,  Mme.  de  Boufflers,  and  applauding  whenever 
she  gave  evidence  of  approval.  Unfortunately,  the 
lady  liked  best  certain  eulogistic  remarks  on  the  visitor, 
and  thus  Franklin  clapped  his  own  praises  the  loudest. 
On  his  being  sent  to  France  in  1776  as  a  commis- 
sioner from  America,  he  set  himself  to  learn  to  speak 
and  write  French ;  but  he  was  now  a  man  of  seventy, 
and  it  did  not  come  easily  to  him.  The  British  ambas- 
sador,-who  kept  close  watch  on  his  proceedings,  reported 
to  his  government,  anent  an  interview  of  Franklin  with 
the  Due  de  Choiseul :  "  It  is  very  possible  that  M.  de 
Belgioso  was  desired  to  act  as  interpreter,  as  Franklin 
does  not  speak  French  with  any  Facility."  After  he 
had  had  eighteen  months  of  French  life,  his  fellow- 
diplomat,  John  Adams,  said: 

"  Dr.  Franklin  is  reported  to  speak  French  very  well,  but  I 
find,  upon  attending  to  him,  that  he  does  not  speak  it  gram- 
matically, and,  indeed,  upon  inquiring,  he  confesses  that  he  is 
wholly  inattentive  to  the  grammar.  His  pronunciation,  too, 
upon  which  the  French  gentlemen  and  ladies  compliment  him, 
and  which  he  seems  to  think  is  pretty  well,  I  am  sure  is  very 
far  from  being  exact." 

So,  too,  John  Baynes,  who  was  in  Paris  in  1783,  notes 
that  Franklin  "  could  not  make  much  out  "  of  a  certain 

122 


EDUCATION 

Frenchman  who  had  been  presented  to  him,  he  "  hav- 
ing rather  an  obscure  mode  of  expressing  himself." 

Nor  was  the  minister  a  better  Frenchman  with  pen 
than  with  tongue,  though  he  sought  the  aid  of  his  French 
friends  in  an  endeavor  to  improve  himself,  and  wrote 
out  exercises  for  them  to  correct,  with  an  apology 
because 

"  I  am  conscious  that  I  have  written  here  a  great  deal  of  very 
bad  french ;  it  may  disgust  you  who  write  that  charming 
language  with  so  much  purity  and  elegance.  But  if  you  can 
finally  decipher  "my  awkward  and  unfit  expressions  you  will 
perhaps  have  at  least  that  kind  of  pleasure  that  one  has  in 
solving  enigmas,  or  discovering  secrets." 

His  chief  teacher  was  Mme.  Brillon,  and  the  character 
of  her  task  can  be  judged  by  one  letter,  in  which  she 
told  her  pupil  that  he  must  say  "plus  de  (not  que)  40 
annees ;  Penser  a  (not  de)  une  chose  ;  D'avoir  permission 
(not  d'etre  permis) ;  Peutetre  m'addresserai  (not  je 
m'addresserai)."  But  in  pointing  out  the  inaccuracies, 
she  made  little  of  them.  "  What  you  call  your  bad 
french,  often  gives  a  spice  to  your  narration  by  the 
construction  of  your  sentences  and  by  the  words  which 
you  invent,"  she  told  him,  and  "  If  your  french  is  not 
very  pure,  it  is  at  least  very  clear!"  Writing  of  his 
attempted  amendment  of  a  bagatelle,  she  said : 

"  Your  correcting  of  the  french  believe  me  have  spoiled  your 
work,  leave  your  works  as  they  are,  faults  of  words  that  tell 
something,  and  laugh  at  grammarians  who  for  purity  weaken 
all  your  phrases:  if  I  had  a  good  enough  mind  I  should  write 
a  terrible  diatribe  against  those  who  dare  to  touch  you  up, 
were  it  the  Abbe  de  la  Roche." 

123 


/ 


*  fftmmir *    tr  fj+f    st 

<fc      .     x7.  f. 


A  LETTER  OF   FRANKLIN'S   IN    FRENCH. 
In  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 


EDUCATION 

Finally  he  sent  her  a  draft,  and  when  it  was  returned, 
she  had  nothing  but  praise:  "Bravo,  Bravissimo!  the 
letter  for  mr.  de  Rayneval  contains  nothing  to  correct 
and  mr.  Franklin  only  sent  it  to  me  from  excess  of  self 
love."  Yet  even  such  a  testimony  did  not  make  Frank- 
lin trustful  of  his  French,  and  after  his  return  to  America 
he  felt  it  necessary  to  excuse  it  to  his  correspondents. 
"  I  have  just  been  writing  a  French  letter  to  Made- 
moiselle Chaumont,"  he  informed  one,  "  but  it  costs  me 
too  much  time  to  write  in  that  language,  and  after 
all  't  is  very  bad  French,  and  I  therefore  write  to  you 
in  English,  which  I  think  you  will  as  easily  under- 
stand ;  if  not,  ma  chere  amie,  Sophie,  can  interpret  it 
for  you." 

As  instanced  by  his  purchase  of  his  uncle  Benjamin's 
books,  Franklin  made  the  most  of  his  years  in  London, 
from  1757  to  1775,  to  collect  books,  though  he  was  no 
bibliomaniac,  and,  indeed,  satirized  the  class  in  the 
stanza : 

"  Pollio,  who  values  nothing  that  's  within, 
Buys  books  as  men  hunt  beavers— for  their  skin." 

When  the  time  came  for  his  return  to  America,  he 
expressed  amazement  at  the  number  of  volumes  which 
had  accumulated.  In  going  to  France  a  twelvemonth 
later,  he  left  his  library  in  the  hands  of  his  daughter, 
and  when,  a  few  weeks  after  his  sailing,  the  British 
threatened  to  capture  Philadelphia,  "  Your  library  we 
sent  out  of  town,  well  packed  in  boxes."  A  year  after, 
when  the  British  army  gained  possession  of  the  city,  a 
similar  precaution  was  not  taken,  and  this  resulted  in 

125 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

the   loss   of  a  number  of   his   books   in   the   following 
manner : 

"  When  Major  Andre  was  with  the  British  army  in  Philadel- 
phia during  the  Revolutionary  War  he  was  quartered  at  the 
house  of  Dr.  Franklin  who  had  left  in  it  much  furniture  and 
also  his  library.  When  the  enemy  were  about  to  evacuate  the 
City  M.  du  Simitiere,  a  well  known  Italian  gentleman  attached 
to  science  and  the  fine  arts,  and  well  acquainted  with  Andre, 
waited  upon  him  to  take  leave  and  to  solicit  his  interest  in 
their  prevention  if  any  irregularities  should  ensue  upon  their 
leaving  the  City.  He  found  the  Major  in  the  library  busily 
employed  in  packing  up  some  books  and  placing  them  among 
his  own  baggage.  .  .  .  Du  Simitiere  said  he  was  shocked  at 
the  procedure,  and  told  him,  in  order  that  he  might  make  the 
inference,  of  the  strictly  just  and  honorable  conduct  of  the 
Hessian  General  Knyphausen  with  respect  to  General  Cad- 
walader's  house  and  property  which  had  been  in  his  posses- 
sion. He  (Gen.  K.)  had  sent  for  the  agent  of  General  Cad- 
walader,  and  giving  him  an  inventory  which  he  had  caused 
his  steward  to  make  out  upon  their  obtaining  possession, 
desired  him  to  observe  that  all  was  left  as  they  had  found  it, 
even  to  some  wine  in  the  cellar,  every  bottle  of  which  was 
left,  and  he  also  paid  the  agent  rent  for  the  time  he  had  been 
in  the  house.  But  the  recital  of  the  German  General's  hon- 
esty made  no  impression  on  the  Major,  as  he  carried  off  the 
books." 

Though  separated  from  his  library  while  in  France, 
Franklin  did  not  lack  for  books,  and  one  of  the  indict- 
ments Madame  Gout  brought  against  him  was  that, 
"  While  the  mornings  are  long,  and  you  have  leisure  to 
go  abroad,  what  do  you  do?  Why,  instead  of  gaining 
an  appetite  for  breakfast,  by  salutary  exercise,  you 
amuse  yourself  with  books,  pamphlets,  or  newspapers, 
which  commonly  are  not  worth  the  reading."  Yet  his 
public  and  social  duties  robbed  him  of  many  hours,  and 

126 


EDUCATION 

Jefferson  records  that  "  Dr.  Franklin  used  to  say  that 
when  he  was  young,  and  had  time  to  read,  he  had  not 
books,  and  now  when  he  had  become  old,  and  had 
books,  he  had  no  time." 

It  was  during  his  stay  in  France  that  he  gave  a 
public  testimony  to  the  value  he  set  upon  books.  A 
town  in  Massachusetts  named  itself  "  Franklin,"  and 
its  minister,  the  Rev.  Nathanael  Emmons,  a  connection 
of  Franklin,  wrote  to  him  and  asked  if  he  would  not,  as 
a  sort  of  sponsorial  present,  give  the  town  a  bell  for  its 
church,  to  be  placed  in  a  steeple  they  purposed  to 
erect.  "  I  have  advised  the  sparing  themselves  the 
expense  of  a  steeple,"  the  utilitarian  wrote  a  friend, 
whom  he  requested  to  select  books  to  the  value  of 
twenty-five  pounds,  and  these  obtained,  he  sent  them 
in  lieu  of  a  bell.  Apparently,  the  substitute  was  satis- 
factory, for  the  minister  preached  a  sermon  on  the  gift, 
and  when  it  was  printed,  the  dedicatory  page  ran: 
"  To  his  Excellency,  Benjamin  Franklin,  President  of 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  the  Ornament  of  Genius,  the 
Patron  of  Science,  and  the  Boast  of  Man,  this  Discourse 
is  Inscribed,  with  the  Greatest  Deference,  Humility,  and 
Gratitude,  by  his  Obliged  and  most  Humble  Servant, 
the  Author." 

Upon  his  final  return  to  America,  he  brought  with 
him  eighteen  "  large  boxes  of  books,"  and  his  collection 
had  now  become  of  such  a  size  that,  in  rebuilding  his 
house,  he  was  forced  to  enlarge  very  much  his  library 
room.  The  Rev.  Manasseh  Cutler  has  left  a  description 
of  the  old  man  and  his  books  which  gives  a  pleasant 
glimpse  of  them  both : 

127 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"  After  it  was  dark,  we  went  into  the  house,  and  the  Doctor 
invited  me  into  his  library,  which  is  likewise  his  study.  It  is 
a  very  large  chamber,  and  high  studded.  The  walls  were 


THE    DIGNITY    OF    MAN. 


DISCOURSE 

Addrefled  to  the  Congregation  in 

F    RAN    K    L.I    N, 

Upon  Ac  Occafion  of  their  receiving  from 

Dr.  FRANKLIN, 

The  Mark  of  hi»  Refped,  in  a  rich 
DONATION  OF  BOOKS, 

Appropriated  to  the  Ufc  of  a 

PARISH-LIBRARY. 


E'MMONS, 


PROVIDENCE: 


TITLE-PAGE  OF  EMMONS'S   SERMON   ON   FRANKLIN'S 

GIFT  OF  BOOKS. 
In  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

covered  with  book-shelves  filled  with  books ;  besides,  there 
are  four  large  alcoves,  extending  two-thirds  of  the  length  of 
the  Chamber,  filled  in  the  same  manner.  I  presume  this  is 

128 


EDUCATION 

the  largest,  and  by  far  the  best,  private  library  in  America. 
He  .  .  .  showed  us  his  long  artificial  arm  and  hand  for 
taking  down  and  putting  books  up  on  high  shelves  which  are 
out  of  reach ;  and  his  great  armed  chair,  with  rockers,  and  a 
large  fan  placed  over  it,  with  which  he  fans  himself,  keeps  off 
the  flies,  etc.,  while  he  sits  reading,  with  only  a  small  motion 
of  his  foot ;  and  many  other  curiosities  and  inventions,  all  his 
own,  but  of  lesser  note.  Over  his  mantel-tree,  he  has  a 
prodigious  number  of  medals,  busts,  and  casts  in  wax  or  plas- 
ter of  Paris,  which  are  the  effigies  of  the  most  noted  charac- 
ters in  Europe.  But  what  the  Doctor  wished  principally  to 
show  to  me  was  a  huge  volume  on  Botany,  and  which,  indeed, 
afforded  me  the  greatest  pleasure  of  any  one  thing  in  his 
library.  It  was  a  single  volume,  but  so  large  that  it  was  with 
great  difficulty  that  the  Doctor  was  able  to  raise  it  from  a  low 
shelf  and  lift  it  on  to  the  table ;  but  with  that  senile  ambition 
common  to  old  people,  he  insisted  on  doing  it  himself,  and 
would  permit  no  person  to  assist  him,  merely  to  show  us  how 
much  strength  he  had  remaining.  It  contained  the  whole 
Linnaeus  Systima  Vegetabilia,  with  large  cuts  of  every  plant, 
and  colored  from  nature.  It  was  a  feast  to  me,  and  the  Doc- 
tor seemed  to  enjoy  it  as  well  as  myself.  .  .  .  The  Doctor 
seemed  extremely  fond,  through  the  course  of  the  visit,  of 
dwelling  on  Philosophical  subjects,  and  particularly  that  of 
natural  History,  while  the  other  Gentlemen  were  swallowed 
up  with  politics.  This  was  a  favorable  circumstance  to  me, 
for  almost  the  whole  of  his  conversation  was  addressed  to 
me  ;  and  I  was  highly  delighted  with  the  extensive  knowledge 
he  appeared  to  have  of  every  subject,  the  brightness  of  his 
memory,  and  clearness  and  vivacity  of  all  his  mental  faculties." 

His  library  was  his  chief  resource  in  the  last  years  of 
his  life,  when  his  malady  kept  him  within  doors  and,  for 
the  most  part,  confined  to  his  bed.  "  In  the  intervals  of 
pain,  he  ...  amused  himself  with  reading  and  writ- 
ing," his  grandson  states  ;  and  another  witness  chronicles 
that,  "  When  able  to  be  out  of  bed,  he  passed  nearly 
all  his  time  in  his  office,  reading  and  writing,  and  in 
9  129 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

conversation  with  his  friends ;  and,  when  the  boys  were 
playing  and  very  noisy,  in  the  lot  in  front  of  the  office, 
he  would  open  the  window  and  call  to  them :  '  Boys, 
Boys,  can't  you  play  without  making  so  much  noise. 
I  am  reading,  and  it  disturbs  me  very  much.'  I  have 
heard  the  servants  in  his  family  say  that  he  never  used 
a  hasty  or  angry  word  to  any  one." 

"  Some  men  grow  mad  by  studying  much  to  know, 
But  who  grows  mad  by  studying  good  to  grow?  " 

asked  Poor  Richard,  and  the  same  epigram-maker  as- 
serted that : 

"  He  that  lives  well  is  learned  enough." 


FRANKLIN'S  LIBRARY  CHAIR,  SHOWING  THE  SEAT  TURNED  UP 

TO   FORM   A  LADDER. 
In  the  possession  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 


130 


•?     /*<L*a4*J^j  H~  *>*»M^  , 

-««•—•    ^--L.   '»**,A^,..A      A^i.^^--  ^-  •    '--^*    ••**«*»»» ' -^ 


PPI 

BAPTISM    RKCORD   OF    FRANKLIN. 
From  records  of  the  Old  South  Church,  Boston. 


IV 
RELIGION 

ON  January  6,  1/06,  the  very  day  Franklin  was 
born,  he  was  baptized  in  the  Old  South  Church 
in  Boston.  If  trustworthy  tradition  be  given  credence, 
he  was  carried  thither  through  the  deep  snow  by  his 
mother,  and  this  act,  which  now  would  be  held  little 
short  of  murder,  was  no  less  perilous  then,  as  is  proved 
by  the  fearful  death-rate  among  the  mothers  and  chil- 
dren of  New  England.  But  the  Calvinistic  faith  of  the 
Puritans  maintained  that  the  physical  danger  of  either 
matricide  or  infanticide  was  as  nothing  compared  with 
the  spiritual  risk  of  the  babe  d)ang  unbaptized,  and  so 
convention  decreed  that  both  parent  and  offspring  should 
be  exposed  without  loss  of  time,  rather  than  doom  the 
little  one  to  eternal  damnation. 

The  strain  of  religious  austerity  that  such  a  proceed- 
ing implied  was  a  heritage.  "  This  obscure  family  of 
ours,"  Franklin  writes  of  his  English  progenitors,  "  was 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

early  in  the  Reformation,  and  continued  Protestants 
through  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  when  they  were 
sometimes  in  danger  of  trouble  on  account  of  their 
zeal  against  popery.  They  had  got  an  English  Bible, 
and  to  conceal  and  secure  it,  it  was  fastened  open  with 
tapes  under  and  within  the  cover  of  a  joint-stool. 
When  my  great-great-grandfather  read  it  to  his  family, 
he  turned  up  the  joint-stool  upon  his  knees,  turning 
over  the  leaves  then  under  the  tapes.  One  of  the 
children  stood  at  the  door  to  give  notice  if  he  saw  the 
apparitor  coming,  who  was  an  officer  of  the  spiritual 
court.  In  that  case  the  stool  was  turned  down  again 
upon  its  feet,  when  the  Bible  remained  concealed  under 
it  as  before."  The  family  continued  Church  of  Eng- 
land folk  with  the  exception  of  Franklin's  father  and 
uncle,  who  were  led  to  change  their  faith  during  the 
reign  of  King  Charles  II,  by  the  obvious  tendency  of 
the  court  toward  Romanism,  and  the  severity  of  the 
parliamentary  laws  against  the  independent  sectaries. 
"  When  some  of  the  ministers  that  had  been  outed  for 
non-conformity  holding  conventicles  in  Northampton- 
shire, Benjamin  and  Josiah  adhered  to  them,  and  so 
continued  all  their  lives."  Just  prior  to  the  death  of 
Charles,  or  immediately  after  the  accession  of  James, 
when  affairs  looked  so  hopeless  for  the  Puritans,  "  some 
considerable  men  "  of  Josiah  Franklin's  acquaintance 
planned  a  removal  to  New  England,  "  and  he  was  pre- 
vailed with  to  accompany  them  thither,  where  they  ex- 
pected to  enjoy  their  mode  of  religion  with  freedom." 
Josiah  Franklin,  shortly  after  his  arrival  in  America, 
became  a  member  of  the  Old  South  Church,  and  his 

132 


RELIGION 

chief  distinction  appears  to  have  been  in  the  affairs  of 
this  church.  Sewall  states  that  upon  occasion  he 
"  moved  prayer  at  Meeting,"  or  "  pitched  "  the  tune, 
and  the  son  records  in  his  autobiography  that  he  "  was 
skilled  a  little  in  music,  and  had  a  clear,  pleasing  voice, 
so  that  when  he  played  psalm  tunes  on  his  violin  and 
sung  withal,  as  he  sometimes  did  in  an  evening  after 
the  business  of  the  day  was  over,  it  was  extremely 
agreeable  to  hear."  Nor  did  the  two  services  on  Sun- 
day and  the  "  Thursday  lecture"  satisfy  the  religious 
side  of  his  nature,  for  he  held  devotional  meetings  in 
his  own  home. 

The  ambition  of  every  self-respecting  New  Eng- 
land family  at  that  time  was  to  produce  at  least  one 
clergyman,  and  Josiah  planned  to  devote  Benjamin, 
"  as  the  tithe  of  his  sons,  to  the  service  of  the 
Church,"  an  intention  stimulated  by  Franklin's  early 
bookishness.  "  My  Uncle  Benjamin,  too,  approved  of 
it,"  and  "  having  been  a  great  attender  of  sermons  of 
the  best  preachers,  which  he  took  down,"  he  "pro- 
posed to  give  me  all  his  shorthand  volumes  of  sermons, 
I  suppose  as  a  stock  to  set  up  with,  if  I  would  learn  his 
character."  But,  as  already  mentioned,  the  expense 
and  the  probable  "mean  living"  finally  led  the  parent 
to  change  his  determination.  Yet  clearly  the  "  mean 
living"  was  not  the  absolute  deterrent,  for  at  sixteen 
years  of  age,  in  his  description  of  Harvard  College,  the 
boy,  recounting  the  shifts  of  the  graduates  for  a  liveli- 
hood, described  how  the  greater 

"  Crowd  went  along  a  large  beaten  Path  which  led  to  a  Tem- 
ple at  the  further  End  of  the  Plain,  call'd,  The  Temple  of 

133 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Theology.  The  Business  of  those  who  were  employ'd  in  this 
Temple  being  laborious  and  painful,  I  wonder'd  exceedingly 
to  see  so  many  go  towards  it ;  but  while  I  was  pondering  this 
Matter  in  my  Mind,  I  spy'd  Pecunia  behind  a  Curtain,  beck- 
oning to  them  with  her  Hand,  which  Sight  immediately  sat- 
isfy'd  me  for  whose  Sake  it  was,  that  a  great  Part  of  them  (I 
will  not  say  all)  travel'd  that  Road." 

Apparently,  too,  Franklin  later  in  life  did  not  approve 
of  even  the  "  mean  living  "  of  the  New  England  clergy, 
for  he  declared,  apropos  of  the  test  act  of  Massachu- 
setts : 

"  If  Christian  preachers  had  continued  to  teach  as  Christ 
and  his  Apostles  did,  without  salaries,  and  as  the  Quakers 
now  do,  I  imagine  tests  would  never  have  existed  ;  for  I  think 
they  were  invented  not  so  much  to  secure  religion  itself  as  the 
emoluments  of  it.  When  a  religion  is  good,  I  conceive  that 
it  will  s.upport  itself ;  and  when  it  cannot  support  itself,  and 
God  does  not  take  care  to  support  it,  so  that  its  professors  are 
obliged  to  call  for  the  help  of  the  civil  power,  it  is  a  sign,  I 
apprehend,  of  its  being  a  bad  one." 

He  did  not,  however,  believe  in  his  theory  strongly 
enough  to  apply  it  within  the  family  circle ;  for  Frank- 
lin wrote  to  the  father  of  the  boy  he  had  selected  for 
his  son-in-law :  "  Tell  me  whether  George  is  to  be  a 
Church  or  Presbyterian  parson?  I  know  you  are  a 
Presbyterian  yourself;  but  then  I  think  you  have  more 
sense  than  to  stick  him  into  a  priesthood  that  admits 
of  no  promotion.  If  he  was  a  dull  lad  it  might  not  be 
amiss,  but  George  has  parts,  and  ought  to  aim  at  a 
mitre." 

The  story  of  Franklin's  objecting  to  his  father's  long 
prayers,  and  suggesting  that  he  make  a  wholesale  grace 

134 


-"__    •  ^Ogg^if ..---_    r  '.| 

r      *  " 


OLD   SOUTH   CHURCH,   BOSTON. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

over  the  pork-barrel,  shows  how  early  the  lad  revolted 
from  the  faith  of  his  father. 

"  My  parents  had  early  given  me  religious  impressions,"  he 
states,  "  and  brought  me  through  my  childhood  piously  in  the 
Dissenting  way.  But  I  was  scarce  fifteen,  when,  after  doubt- 
ing by  turns  of  several  points,  as  I  found  them  disputed  in  the 
different  books  I  read,  I  began  to  doubt  of  Revelation  itself. 
Some  books  against  Deism  fell  into  my  hands ;  they  were  said 
to  be  the  substance  of  sermons  preached  at  Boyle's  Lectures. 
It  happened  they  wrought  an  effect  on  me  quite  contrary  to 
what  was  intended  by  them ;  for  the  arguments  of  the  Deists 
which  were  quoted  to  be  refuted,  appeared  to  be  much 
stronger  than  the  refutation;  in  short,  I  soon  became  a 
thorough  Deist." 

No  sooner  was  the  boy,  by  his  apprenticeship,  made 
free  from  his  parents'  direct  control  than  he  devoted 
his  Sundays  to  reading,  "  evading  as  much  as  I  could 
the  common  attendance  on  public  worship,  which  my 
father  used  to  exact  of  me  when  I  was  under  his  care." 
This,  and  "  my  indiscrete  disputations  about  religion, 
began  to  make  me  pointed  at  with  horror  by  the  good 
people  as  an  infidel  and  atheist."  Such  a  view  Frank- 
lin always  resented,  and  showed  indignation  at  the  lack 
of  public  discrimination  concerning  the  words,  "  because 
I  think  they  are  diametrically  opposite,  and  not  near 
of  kin,  as  Mr.  Whitefieid  seems  to  suppose,  where  (in  his 
Journal)  he  tells  us :  '  M.  B.  was  a  deist;  I  had  almost 
said  an  atheist' — that  is,  chalk;  I  had  almost  said 
charcoal" 

Suspicion  of  atheism  and  failure  to  attend  church 
were  enough  to  destroy  the  reputation  of  any  one  in 
New  England  in  1720,  but  Franklin  did  worse.  The 

136 


RELIGION 

Mathers,  who  then  dominated  Massachusetts  intellectu- 
ally, though  firm  believers  in  witches,  had,  with  curious 
contradiction,  come  out  in  favor  of  the  palliative  for  the 
smallpox  which  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu  had 
brought  to  England  from  Turkey.  Those  opposed  to 
inoculation  found  in  James  Franklin's  "  New  England 
Courant "  a  ready  mouthpiece  for  all  their  views,  and 
as  the  controversy  grew  it  took  on  a  personal  quality. 
The  Mathers  were  attacked,  were  ridiculed,  and  even 
their  ungainly  writings  were  burlesqued.  The  reverend 
gentlemen,  unused  to  such  irreverent  treatment,  lost 
their  dignity  and  replied  in  kind.  The  "  Courant," 
according  to  Cotton  Mather,  was  a  "  notorious,  scanda- 
lous "  newspaper,  "  full  freighted  with  nonsense, 
unmannerliness,  raillery,  profaneness,  immorality, 
arrogance,  calumnies,  lies,  contradictions,  and  what 
not,  all  tending  to  quarrels  and  divisions,  and  to  de- 
bauch and  corrupt  the  minds  and  manners  of  New 
England."  This  was  echoed  in  no  minor  key  by  In- 
crease Mather,  who  declared  the  paper  a  "  wicked 
libel,"  because  the  printer,  in  one  of  his  "  Vile  Cou- 
rants," 

"  Insinuates,  that  if  the  Ministers  of  God  approve  of  a  thing,  it 
is  a  Sign  it  is  of  the  Devil ;  which  is  a  horrid  thing  to  be  re- 
lated! And  he  doth  frequently  abuse  the  Ministers  of  Re- 
ligion and  many  other  worthy  Persons  in  a  manner  which  is 
intolerable.  For  these  and  such  like  Reasons,  I  signified  to 
the  Printer,  that  I  would  have  no  more  of  their  Wicked  Con- 
rants.  I  who  have  known  what  New  England  was  from  the 
Beginning,  cannot  but  be  troubled  to  see  the  Degeneracy  of 
this  Place.  I  can  well  remember  when  the  Civil  Government 
would  have  taken  a  severe  Course  to  repress  such  a  Cursed 
Libel  7  which,  if  not  taken,  I  am  afraid  some  Awful  Judgment 

137 


WILLIAM   \VOLLASTON. 
From  an  engraving  by  Vertue,  after  a  portrait  attributed  to  William  Hogarth. 


RELIGION 

will  come  upon  this  Land,  and  the  Wrath  of  God  will  arise, 
and  there  will  be  no  Remedy.  I  cannot  but  pity/vw  Franklin 
who  tho'  but  a  Young  Man  it  may  be  Speedily  he  must  ap- 
pear before  the  Judgment  Seat  of  God,  and  what  answer  will 
he  give  for  printing  things  so  evil  and  abominable?  " 

Thus  whipped  by  the  clergy,  the  civil  government 
took  action  against  the  "  Courant,"  and  eventually 
issued  an  order  that  James  Franklin  should  cease  to 
print  it.  True  to  the  letter  of  the  order,  and  disobe- 
dient to  the  spirit,  the  printer  continued  to  issue  the 
paper,  but  with  the  name  of  his  brother  Benjamin  as 
the  publisher,  in  place  of  his  own.  The  paper,  too, 
continued  the  attacks  on  the  clergy  and  "  religious 
knaves,"  though  in  a  mock  letter  of  reproof  to  itself  it 
was  warned  not  to  "  cast  injurious  Reflections  on  the 
Reverend  and  Faithful  Ministers  of  the  Gospel."  If 
frowned  upon  by  church  and  state,  the  paper  pros- 
pered, soon  came  to  exceed  in  circulation  and  advertis- 
ing patronage  its  rivals,  and  dared  even  to  raise  its 
price. 

Fortunately  for  Franklin,  his  quarrels  with  his 
brother  presently  terminated  his  connection  with  the 
"  Courant "  and  drove  him  from  Boston,  where  the  bad 
reputation  he  had  acquired  would  probably  henceforth 
have  prevented  his  advancement.  In  tolerant  Phila- 
delphia he  was  free  to  think  and  act  as  he  pleased,  and 
one  incident  during  the  first  day  he  passed  in  the  city 
seemed  to  typify  the  difference  between  voluntary  and 
enforced  religion  ;  for,  having  avoided  church-going  in 
Boston,  on  his  arrival  in  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love  he 
relates  that : 

139 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


"  I  walked  again  up  the  street,  which  by  this  time  had  many 
clean-dressed  people  in  it,  who  were  all  walking  the  same 
way.  I  joined  them,  and  thereby  was  led  into  the  great 


THE 

RELIGION 


O    F 


NATURE 

DELINEATED. 


'£N  ME'ZJI  KftfuvZufrlw  'EvaiSeiev.     Plur. 


o/'fav  w»  ex 

CXOTSlV,     TT 


w,  amMmetr.    Plato. 


L     O 


O    AT: 


Printed  by  S.  'Palmer,  and  fold  by  B.  LINTOTT,  W,  and  J.  INNYS, 
J.  OSBOXN,  J.  BATLEY,  and  T.  LONGMAN.     172^. 


TITLE-PAGE  OF  WOLLASTON'S   "  RELIGION   OF   NATURE." 
From  the  copy  in  the  possession  of  Paul  Leicester  Ford 

meeting-house  of  the  Quakers  near  the  market.  I  sat  down 
among  them,  and,  after  looking  round  awhile  and  hearing 
nothing  said,  being  very  drowsy  thro'  labor  and  want  of  rest 
the  preceding  night,  I  fell  fast  asleep,  and  continu'd  so  till  the 

140 


RELIGION 

meeting  broke  up,  when  one  was  kind  enough  to  rouse  me. 
This  was,  therefore,  the  first  house  I  was  in,  or  slept  in,  in 
Philadelphia." 

During  his  first  brief  visit  to  London,  Franklin  made 
friends  of  a  number  of  deists  such  as  Lyon  and  Man- 
deville,  both  of  whom  had  written  books  then  thought 
highly  irreligious.  Franklin  himself  followed  their  ex- 
ample. While  working  as  a  journeyman  printer  he 
"  was  employed  in  composing  for  the  second  edition  of 
Wollaston's  '  Religion  of  Nature.' '  The  book  was  an 
absolutely  inoffensive  one,  and  the  six  editions  and  ten 
thousand  copies  sold  of  it  probably  did  as  little  harm  as 
any  book  ever  printed ;  but  to  the  young  doubter,  fresh 
from  his  controversies  with  the  Boston  ministers,  it  was 
an  irritation  to  leave  unanswered  the  a  priori  proposi- 
tions, and  circular  reasonings  based  thereon,  concerning 
good  and  evil,  truth  and  falsehood,  pleasure  and  pain. 
So  in  spare  hours  he  wrote  and  put  into  type  a  little 
tractate,  animadverting  on  some  of  the  clerical  author's 
arguments,  and  practically  denying  a  future  life  or  re- 
wards, the  existence  of  natural  religion,  and  of  the 
theological  distinction  between  man  and  beast.  This 
dissertation  on  "  Liberty  and  Necessity,  Pleasure  and 
Pain  "  has  since  been  known  as  his  "  wicked  tract,"  and 
Franklin  lived  to  term  it  "  an  erratum,"  and  to  destroy 
almost  all  of  the  hundred  copies  he  had  printed. 

Upon  his  return  to  Philadelphia,  Franklin  "  regularly 
paid  my  subscription  for  the  support  of  the  only  Pres- 
byterian minister  or  meeting  "  in  that  city ;  yet,  while 
"  I  had  still  an  opinion  of  its  propriety,  and  its  utility, 
I  seldom  attended  any  public  worship."  For  this  con- 

141 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

duct  his  clergyman  reproved  him,  and  urged  Franklin 
to  attend  "  his  administrations,  and  I  was  now  and  then 
prevail'd  on  to  do  so,  once  for  five  Sundays  succes- 
sively. Had  he  been  in  my  opinion  a  good  preacher, 
perhaps  I  might  have  continued,  notwithstanding  the 
occasion  I  had  for  the  Sunday's  leisure  in  my  course  of 
study  ;  but  his  discourses  were  chiefly  either  polemical 
arguments  or  explications  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  of 
our  sect,  and  were  all  to  me  very  dry,  uninteresting,  and 
unedifying,  since  not  a  single  moral  principle  was  in- 
culcated or  enforc'd.  Their  aim  seemed  to  be  rather 
to  make  us  Presbyterians  than  good  citizens."  Finally, 
a  special  sermon  so  "  disgusted  "  Franklin  that  he  "  at- 
tended his  preaching  no  more.  ...  I  had  some  years 
before  compos'd  a  little  Liturgy  or  form  of  prayer  for 
my  own  private  use  (viz.,  in  1728),  entitled  '  Articles  of 
Belief  and  Acts  of  Religion.'  I  return'd  to  the  use  of 
this  and  went  no  more  to  the  public  assemblies." 

So  long  as  this  clergyman  was  the  sole  minister  of 
the  sect  in  Philadelphia,  Franklin  continued  to  absent 
himself  from  church;  but,  "about  the  year  1734,  there 
arrived  among  us  from  Ireland  a  young  Presbyterian 
preacher,  named  Hemphill,  who  delivered  with  a  good 
voice,  apparently  extempore,  most  excellent  discourses, 
which  drew  together  considerable  numbers  of  different 
persuasions,  who  join'd  in  admiring  him.  Among  the 
rest,  I  became  one  of  his  constant  hearers,  his  sermons 
pleasing  me,  as  they  had  little  of  the  dogmatical  kind, 
but  inculcated  strongly  the  practice  of  virtue,  or  what 
in  the  religious  style  are  called  f  good  works.'  '  The 
Rev.  Jedediah  Andrews,  the  old  clergyman,  did  not 

142 


RELIGION 


agree  with  Franklin ;  having  first  taken  Mr.  Hemphill 
for  his  assistant,  as  his  popularity  grew  he  came  to  be- 


DISSERTATION 

ON 

Liberty  and  '"Neceffity, 

PLEASURE  and  P  A  i  NV 


.  Wliatever  it,  is  in  its  Catffes  jufl 
Since-  all  Things  are  by  Fate ;  butfurblind  Man 
Sees  but  a  fart  o'th'  Chain,  the  nearei7  Link, 
His  Eyes  not  carrying  to  the  equal  Beam 
That  foifes  all  above. 

Dryd. 


LON'DON: 

in  the   Year  MDCCXXV, 


TITLE-PAGE  OF  FRANKLIN'S  "  WICKED  TRACT." 
In  the  Congressional  Library. 

lieve  it  nothing  but  a  "  dreadful  plot  laid  by  Satan  to 
root  Christianity  out  of  the  world,"  and  charged  that 
the  eloquent  preacher  drew  about  him  only  "  Free 

143 


THE    MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

thinkers,  Deists  and  nothings."  Through  his  influence 
the  newcomer  was  arraigned  for  heterodoxy  before  a 
synod,  and  "  never  was  there  such  a  trial  known  in  the 
American  World."  Mr.  Hemphill  had  preached  that 
l<  the  Gospel  was  a  revival  of  the  laws  of  nature  " ;  that 
"  the  Lord's  Supper  promoted  a  good  life,  but  was  not 
a  communion  with  Christ  "  ;  had  prayed  for  mankind, 
and  not  for  the  church ;  and,  perhaps  worst  of  all,  in 
the  eyes  of  his  accuser,  had  preached  sermons  in  which 
he  had  made  no  mention  of  original  sin.  Franklin, 
who  had  become  a  "  zealous  partisan  .  .  .  contrib- 
uted all  I  could  to  raise  a  party  in  his  favour,  and  we 
combated  for  him  awhile  with  some  hopes  of  success. 
There  was  much  scribbling  pro  and  con  upon  the  occa- 
sion ;  and  finding  that,  tho'  an  eloquent  preacher,  he 
was  but  a  poor  writer,  I  lent  him  my  pen,  and  wrote 
for  him  two  or  three  pamphlets,  and  one  piece  in  the 
Gazette."  These  defended  Hemphill,  "  because  in  all 
his  discourses  he  enforced  Christian  charity  and  the 
necessity  of  a  good  life " ;  but  how  little  in  accord 
Franklin  was  with  his  own  church  is  shown  by  his  as- 
sertions that  "  good  works  put  men  in  God's  way  and 
reconcile  God  to  them,"  and  that  "  original  sin  was  as 
ridiculous  as  imputed  righteousness."  A  reply  was 
quickly  forthcoming,  which  dwelt  on  the  pamphleteer's 
"  false  and  abusive  Criminations,  his  outrageous  Bil- 
lingsgate Language,  and  horrid  Profaneness."  As  was 
foreordained,  the  eloquent  clergyman  was  brought  in 
guilty  and  silenced,  but  he  continued  to  preach  as  an 
independent  until  he  was  caught  using  another  man's 
sermons.  "  This  detection  gave  many  of  our  party 

144 


RELIGION 

disgust,  who  accordingly  abandoned  his  cause.  ...  I 
stuck  by  him,  however,  as  I  rather  approv'd  his  giving 
us  good  sermons  compos'd  by  others  than  bad  ones  of 


C>SM 


TITLE-PAGE  OF   FRANKLIN'S   PRIVATE  DEVOTIONAL  BOOK. 
In  the  Department  of  State,  Washington. 

his  own  manufacture,  tho'  the  latter  was  the  practice  of 
our  common  preachers.  He  afterwards  acknowledged 
to  me  that  none  of  those  he  preached  were  his  own, 

145 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

and  I  quitted  the  congregation,  never  joining  it  after, 
tho'  I  continued  many  years  my  subscriptions  for  the 
support  of  its  minister."  His  disgust  may  have  been 
the  direct  cause  of  Poor  Richard's  remark  that  "  Many 
have  quarrel'd  about  Religion,  that  never  practised  it." 
Franklin's  opinion  of  church  disputes  is  given  in  no 
uncertain  key : 

"  Each  party  abuses  the  other ;  the  profane  and  the  infidel 
believe  both  sides,  and  enjoy  the  fray ;  the  reputation  of  re- 
ligion in  general  suffers,  and  its  enemies  are  ready  to  say,  not 
what  was  said  in  the  primitive  times,  Behold  how  these  Chris- 
tians love  one  another,— but,  Mark  how  these  Christians  hate 
one  another!  Indeed,  when  religious  people  quarrel  about 
religion,  or  hungry  people  about  their  victuals,  it  looks  as  if 
they  had  not  much  of  either  among  them." 

Thoroughly  out  of  humor  with  the  faith  of  his  father, 
Franklin  now  took  a  pew  in  the  Episcopalian  Christ 
Church,  and  there  his  family  henceforth  worshiped, 
there  a  son  and  daughter  were  baptized,  and  there  he 
and  his  wife,  with  two  of  their  children,  were  eventu- 
ally buried.  Though  Franklin  rarely  attended  the 
service,  he  concerned  himself  in  the  material  interests 
of  the  church.  In  1737  he  subscribed  to  a  fund  for 
finishing  the  new  building,  in  1751  to  one  to  build  a 
steeple  and  purchase  a  chime  of  bells,  and  twice  he  was 
appointed  by  the  vestry  one  of  the  managers  of  lot- 
teries for  raising  a  fund  for  this  purpose.  Probably 
the  most  amusing  relic  of  his  relations  with  this  church 
was  an  advertisement  in  his  own  paper,  anent  his  wife's 
Prayer-book : 

"  Taken  out  of  a  Pew  in  the  Church  some  Months  since,  a 
Common-Prayer  Book,  bound  in  Red,  gilt,  and  letter'd  D  F 

146 


RELIGION 

on  each  Corner.  The  Person  who  took  it,  is  desir'd  to  open 
it  and  read  the  Eighth  Commandment,  and  afterwards  return 
it  into  the  same  Pew  again ;  upon  which  no  further  Notice 
will  be  taken." 

However  Franklin,  the  private  citizen  of  tolerant 
Pennsylvania,  might  be  left  free  to  think  and  act  as  he 
chose,  when  he  became  an  office-holder  of  the  colony 
his  freedom  was  curtailed,  for  he  was  called  upon  to 
sign  an  oath,  or  test,  before  he  was  allowed  to  serve 
the  public.  By  this  he  was  required  to  "  Solemnly 
promise  and  declare  that  .  .  .  our  hearts  abhor, 
detest  and  renounce  as  impious  and  heretical  that 
damnable  doctrine  and  position  that  princes  excom- 
municated and  deprived  by  the  Pope,  or  any  other 
authority  of  the  see  of  Rome,  may  be  deposed  or  mur- 
dered by  their  subjects  "  ;  to  "  solemnly  and  sincerely 
profess  and  testify  that  in  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  there  is  no  transubstantiation  of  the  elements 
of  bread  and  wine  into  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ " ; 
that  "  the  invocation  or  adoration  of  the  Virgin  Mary 
or  any  other  saint,  or  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass,  as  they 
are  now  used  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  are  superstitious 
and  idolatrous";  and  that  "each  of  us  for  himself  do 
solemnly  and  sincerely  profess  faith  in  God  the  Father, 
and  in  Jesus  Christ  his  Eternal  Son,  the  true  God,  and 
in  the  Holy  Spirit,  one  God,  blessed  for  evermore. 
And  we  do  acknowledge  the  Holy  Scriptures  to  be  by 
divine  inspiration." 

Although  the  office-holder  subscribed  over  and  over 
again  to  this  oath,  it  was  clearly  from  necessity,  and 
not  from  choice,  and  time  did  not  lessen  his  dislike  of 

J47 


THE    MANY-SIDED    FRANKLIN 


81 

SO  ME  <    s 

•         -  \/ 

O  B  S  E  R  VAT  I  O 


ON    THE 


i 


The 


.s    AGAINST 


:  Hemphil!', 


WITH    A 


.   -7J    -  *       ,  '  ' 

Vindication  of  his  Sermons. 


The  Second  EDITION. 


TITLE-PAGE  OF  ONE   OF   FRANKLIN'S   PAMPHLETS  ON   THE 

HEMPHILL  CONTROVERSY. 
In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

it.  This  was  shown  in  1776,  when  the  colonial  charter 
was  abrogated  and  a  convention  set  about  the  framing 
of  a  new  government.  Of  this  body  Franklin  was 

148 


RELIGION 

president,  and  he  threw  all  his  influence  in  favor  of 
doing  away  with  every  test,  and  in  theory  succeeded, 
for  the  Declaration  of  Rights  adopted  declared : 

"  That  all  men  have  a  natural  and  unalienable  right  to  wor- 
ship Almighty  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own 
consciences  and  understanding :  And  that  no  man  ought  or 
of  right  can  be  compelled  to  attend  any  religious  worship,  or 
erect  or  support  any  place  of  worship,  or  maintain  any  Min- 
istry, contrary  to,  or  against,  his  own  free  will  and  consent : 
Nor  can  any  man,  who  acknowledges  the  being  of  a  God,  be 
justly  deprived  or  abridged  of  any  civil  right  as  a  citizen,  on 
account  of  his  religious  sentiments  or  peculiar  mode  of  re- 
ligious worship :  And  that  no  authority  can  or  ought  to  be 
vested  in,  or  assumed  by,  any  power  whatever,  that  shall  in 
any  case  interfere  with,  or  in  any  manner  controul,  the  right 
of  conscience  in  the  free  exercise  of  religious  worship." 

When  it  came  to  reducing  this  theory  to  practice, 
however,  Franklin  could  not  bring  the  convention  to 
make  its  liberality  concrete,  and  it  decreed  that,  how- 
ever free  its  citizens  might  be  in  their  belief,  before 
they  could  serve  as  lawmakers  they  must  swear:  "I 
DO  believe  in  one  God,  the  Creator  and  Governor  of 
the  Universe,  the  rewarder  of  the  good  and  punisher 
of  the  wicked.  And  I  do  acknowledge  the  Scriptures 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament  to  be  given  by  Divine 
Inspiration."  Concerning  this,  Franklin  wrote  to  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Price: 

"  I  agreed  with  you  in  sentiments  concerning  the  Old 
Testament,  and  thought  the  clause  in  our  Constitution,  which 
required  the  members  of  Assembly  to  declare  their  belief  that 
the  whole  of  it  was  given  by  divine  inspiration,  had  better  have 
been  omitted ;  that  I  had  opposed  the  clause,  but  being  over- 
powered by  numbers,  and  fearing  more  might  in  future  times 
be  grafted  on  it,  I  prevailed  to  have  the  additional  clause 

149 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

'that  110  further  or  more  extended  profession  of  faith  should  ever 
be  exacted'  I  observed  to  you,  too,  that  the  evil  of  it  was  the 
less,  as  no  inhabitant,  nor  any  officer  of  government,  except 
the  members  of  Assembly,  was  obliged  to  make  that  declara- 
tion. 

"  So  much  for  that  letter ;  to  which  I  may  now  add  that  there 
are  several  things  in  the  Old  Testament  impossible  to  be 
given  by  divine  inspiration,  such  as  the  approbation  ascribed 
to  the  angel  of  the  Lord  of  that  abominably  wicked  and  de- 
testable action  of  Jael,  the  wife  of  Heber,  the  Kenite.  If  the 
rest  of  the  book  were  like  that,  I  should  rather  suppose  it 
given  by  inspiration  from  another  quarter,  and  renounce  the 
whole." 

In  leaving  the  Presbyterian  and  allying  himself  with 
the  Episcopalian  Church,  it  is  not  to  be  inferred  that 
Franklin  became  in  any  sense  of  the  word  a  sectarian, 
and  this  fact  was  so  well  recognized  by  his  fellow- 
townsrnen  that,  in  a  dispute  over  a  vacancy  in  a  board 
of  trustees  constituted  of  one  from  each  sect,  the 
mutual  jealousy  of  the  differing  religions  was  finally 
ended  by  the  nomination  of  Franklin,  "  with  the  ob- 
servation that  I  was  merely  an  honest  man,  and  of  no 
sect  at  all,  which  prevailed  with  them  to  chuse  me." 
His  actual  attitude  toward  churches  he  described  as 
follows : 

"I  had  been  religiously  educated  as  a  Presbyterian;  and 
tho'  some  of  the  dogmas  of  that  persuasion,  such  as  the  eter- 
nal decrees  of  God,  election,  reprobation,  etc,,  appeared  to  me 
unintelligible,  others  doubtful,  and  I  early  absented  myself  from 
the  public  assemblies  of  the  sect,  Sunday  being  my  studying 
day,  I  never  was  without  some  religious  principles.  I  never 
doubted,  for  instance,  the  existence  of  the  Deity ;  that  he 
made  the  world,  and  govern'd  it  by  his  Providence ;  that  the 
most  acceptable  service  of  God  was  the  doing  good  to  man ; 
that  our  souls  are  immortal ;  and  that  all  crime  will  be  pun- 

150 


RELIGION 


ished,  and  virtue  rewarded,  either  here  or  hereafter.     These  I 
esteem'd  the  essentials  of  every  religion ;   and,  being  to  be 


DEFENCE 

Of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hempbill's 

OBSERVATIONS: 

OR,     A  N 

A    N    S    W    £     R 

TO 'THE 

VINDICATION  of  the  Reve-  ''' 
rend  COMMISSION: 


;  I  TIM.  1.4. 'and  i\r.  7.  .Neither  give  leed to  Fable j,  and 
twDefi  Gentakgies,  which  minifier  ggejlions,  rather  than  godly 
Edifying,  vfab  it  m  Faith.  -----  But  refyfe  prtfare  Mtfd 
Wtoei  Fable  1 1  and  exercife  tbyfelfunto  Godl'mefi. 

Equidem,  uf  varequod  res  eft  fcribam,  ptorfus  decrevi 
fiigere  omnem  Conventum  Epifcopofum  :  nulHuy  enini 
Cortcilii  bonum  exitum  unquam  vidi :  Concilia  cnim  no» 
.tninuunt  mala,  led  augetjt  potins.  \Augttftiw. 

I  never  knew  any  Good  to  come  from  the  Aleetingi  of  Priejft. 

Tillotfoti. 

Tl?_.  i.  13.    <Ikis  It'ltntfs  H  true:      Wherefore 
them  flmply,  that  they  may  be  found  in  lie  Faith. 


Pft-lL  A  DEL?  H.,1  ^: 
Printed  aiid  .Sold  by  B.  FR  A  NK  L  t N  at  the 
V.ce  near  the  Market,,  i  - . 


TITI.K-rAGE   OK    ONE    oF    FRANKLIN'S    PAMPHLETS 

ON   THE  HEMPHILL  CONTROVERSY. 

In  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

found  in  all  the  religions  we  had  in  our  country,  I  respected 
them  all,  tho'  with  different  degrees  of  respect,  as  I  found 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

them  more  or  less  mix'd  with  other  articles,  which,  without 
any  tendency  to  inspire,  promote,  or  confirm  morality,  serv'd 
principally  to  divide  us,  and  make  us  unfriendly  to  one 
another.  This  respect  to  all,  with  an  opinion  that  the  worst 
had  some  good  effects,  induc'd  me  to  avoid  all  discourse  that 
might  tend  to  lessen  the  good  opinion  another  might  have  of 
his  own  religion  ;  and  as  our  province  increas'd  in  people,  and 
new  places  of  worship  were  continually  wanted,  and  generally 
erected  by  voluntary  contribution,  my  mite  for  such  purpose, 
whatever  might  be  the  sect,  was  never  refused." 


So,  too,  writing  of  a  particular  sect,  Franklin  said :  "  I 
do  not  desire  it  to  be  diminished,  nor  would  I  en- 
deavour to  lessen  it  in  any  man.  But  I  wish  it  were 
more  productive  of  good  works  than  I  have  generally 
seen  it.  I  mean  real  good  works,  works  of  kindness, 
charity,  mercy,  and  publick  spirit ;  not  holiday-keeping, 
sermon  reading  or  hearing,  performing  church  cere- 
monies, or  making  long  prayers,  filled  with  flatteries  and 
compliments, — despis'd  even  by  wise  men,  and  much 
less  capable  of  pleasing  the  Deity.  The  worship  of 
God  is  a  duty,  the  hearing  and  reading  of  sermons  may 
be  useful ;  but  if  men  rest  in  hearing  and  praying,  as 
too  many  do,  it  is  as  if  a  tree  should  value  itself  in  being 
water'd  and  putting  forth  leaves,  tho'  it  never  produc'd 
any  fruit." 

As  already  indicated,  Franklin  was  no  Sabbatarian, 
and  during  his  early  life  set  apart  that  day  for  study 
and  writing.  Later,  when  in  France,  he  adopted  the 
custom  of  the  country  and  observed  it  as  a  fete-day,  on 
which  he  entertained  friends,  went  to  the  play  or  opera, 
amused  himself  with  chess  or  cards,  and  made  merry  in 
other  ways,  to  the  no  small  scandalizing  of  the  more 

152 


RELIGION 


From  a  print  in  the  "Columbian  Magazine." 

puritanical  Americans  who  saw  or  heard  of  the  conduct 
of  their  commissioner  and  minister.  He  himself  had  no 
sympathy  with  the  New  England  Sunday,  and  long  be- 

'53 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

fore  he  went  to  France  he  had  written  to  a  Connecticut 
friend : 

"  When  I  travelled  in  Flanders,  I  thought  of  your  exces- 
sively strict  observation  of  Sunday ;  and  that  a  man  could 
hardly  travel  on  that  day  among  you  upon  his  lawful  occa- 
sions without  hazard  of  punishment;  while,  where  I  was, 
every  one  travelled,  if  he  pleased,  or  diverted  himself  in  any 
other  way ;  and  in  the  afternoon  both  high  and  low  went  to 
the  play  or  the  opera,  where  there  was  plenty  of  singing,  fid- 
dling, and  dancing.  I  looked  around  for  God's  judgments, 
but  saw  no  signs  of  them.  The  cities  were  well  built  and  full 
of  inhabitants,  the  markets  filled  with  plenty,  the  people  well 
favored  and  well  clothed,  the  fields  well  tilled,  the  cattle  fat 
and  strong,  the  fences,  houses,  and  windows  all  in  repair,  and 
no  Old  Tenor  \i.  e.,  paper  money]  anywhere  in  the  country ; 
which  would  almost  make  one  suspect  that  the  Deity  is  not  so 
angry  at  that  offence  as  a  New  England  Justice." 

As  can  readily  be  conceived,  Franklin's  non-atten- 
dance at  church  and  his  general  disrespect  for  doctrinal 
religion  were  a  sore  trial  to  his  Puritan  family,  and 
several  of  them  argued  and  remonstrated  with  him  on 
the  error  of  his  ways.  To  his  father  and  mother  he 
replied : 

"  You  both  seem  concerned  lest  I  have  imbibed  some  erro- 
neous opinions.  Doubtless  I  have  my  share ;  and  when  the 
natural  weakness  and  imperfection  of  human  understanding  is 
considered,  the  unavoidable  influence  of  education,  custom, 
books,  and  company  upon  our  ways  of  thinking,  I  imagine  a 
man  must  have  a  good  deal  of  vanity  who  believes,  and  a  good 
deal  of  boldness  who  affirms,  that  all  the  doctrines  he  holds 
are  true,  and  all  he  rejects  are  false.  And  perhaps  the  same 
may  be  justly  said  of  every  sect,  church,  and  society  of  men, 
when  they  assume  to  themselves  that  infallibility  which  they 
deny  to  the  Pope  and  councils. 

"  I  think  opinions  should  be  judged  of  by  their  influences  and 
effects ;  and  if  a  man  holds  none  that  tend  to  make  him  less 

154 


RELIGION 

virtuous  or  more  vicious,  it  may  be  concluded  he  holds  none 
that  are  dangerous ;  which  I  hope  is  the  case  with  me. 

"  I  am  sorry  you  should  have  any  uneasiness  on  my  account ; 
and  if  it  were  a  thing  possible  for  one  to  alter  his  opinions  in 
order  to  please  another,  I  know  none  whom  I  ought  more 
willingly  to  oblige  in  that  respect  than  yourselves.  But  since 
it  is  no  more  in  a  man's  power  to  think  than  to  look  like 
another,  methinks  all  that  should  be  expected  from  me  is  to 
keep  my  mind  open  to  conviction,  to  hear  patiently  and 
examine  attentively  whatever  is  offered  me  for  that  end  ;  and, 
if  after  all  I  continue  in  the  same  errors,  I  believe  your  usual 
charity  will  induce  you  to  rather  pity  and  excuse,  than  blame 
me.  In  the  mean  time  your  care  and  concern  for  me  is  what 
I  am  very  thankful  for. 

"  My  mother  grieves  that  one  of  her  sons  is  an  Arian,  an- 
other an  Arminian.  What  an  Arminian  or  an  Arian  is,  I 
cannot  say  that  I  very  well  know.  The  truth  is  I  make  such 
distinctions  very  little  my  study.  I  think  vital  religion  has 
always  suffered  when  orthodoxy  is  more  regarded  than  virtue  ; 
and  the  Scriptures  assure  me  that  at  the  last  day  we  shall  not 
be  examined  what  we  thought,  but  what  we  did ;  and  our 
recommendation  will  not  be  that  we  said,  Lord 7  Lord  /  but 
that  we  did  good  to  our  fellow  creatures.  See  Matt,  xxv." 

In  much  the  same  vein  he  answered  a  chiding  letter 
from  his  favorite  sister.  "  There  are  some  things  in 
your  New  England  doctrine  and  worship,"  he  told  her, 
"  which  I  do  not  agree  with ;  but  I  do  not  therefore 
condemn  them,  or  desire  to  shake  your  belief  or  prac- 
tice of  them.  We  may  dislike  things  that  are  never- 
theless right  in  themselves.  I  would  only  have  you 
make  me  the  same  allowance,  and  have  a  better  opinion 
both  of  morality  and  your  brother.  .  .  .  When  you 
judge  of  others,  if  you  can  perceive  the  fruit  to  be 
good,  don't  terrify  yourself  that  the  tree  may  be  evil ; 
but  be  assured  it  is  not  so,  for  you  know  who  has  said, 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

'  Men    do    not   gather    grapes   of    thorns    and    figs    of 
thistles.'  " 

All  through  life  Franklin  preached  this  religion  of 
works,  and  not  of  doctrine.  In  one  of  his  letters  he 
imagines  a  man  at  the  gates  of  heaven,  and  applying 


REV.    GEORGE    WHITEFI  KM). 


for  entrance  on  the  ground  that  he  was  a  Presbyterian. 
"  What  is  that?"  demands  St.  Peter,  and  when  he  is 
told,  says,  "We  don't  have  any  here."  So  in  succes- 
sion the  applicant  mentions  different  religions,  but 
each  time  is  rebuffed  with  the  information  that  there 
are  none  of  that  persuasion  in  heaven.  Finally,  the 

156 


RELIGION 

man  sees  his  wife  through  the  gate,  and  claims  that  if 
she  is  there,  so  he  should  be,  for  they  were  of  the  same 
religion  on  earth.  "  Oh,"  said  St.  Peter,  "  why  did  n't 
you  say  that  you  were  a  Christian,  to  begin  with?" 
Another  tale  which  Franklin  wrote  for  a  French  abbe, 
though  an  apparent  contradiction,  in  truth  had  the 
same  moral : 

"An  officer  named  Montresor,  a  worthy  man,  was  very  ill. 
The  curate  of  his  parish,  thinking  him  likely  to  die,  advised 
him  to  make  his  peace  with  God,  that  he  might  be  received 
into  Paradise.  '  I  have  not  much  uneasiness  on  the  subject,' 
said  Montresor,  '  for  I  had  a  vision  last  night  which  has  per- 
fectly tranquillized  my  mind.'  '  What  vision  have  you  had?  ' 
said  the  good  priest.  '  I  was,'  replied  Montresor,  '  at  the 
gate  of  Paradise,  with  a  crowd  of  people  who  wished  to  enter, 
and  St.  Peter  inquired  of  every  one  what  religion  he  was  of. 
One  answered,  "  I  am  a  Roman  Catholic."  "  Well,"  said  St. 
Peter,  "  enter,  and  take  your  place  there  among  the  Catho- 
lics." Another  said  he  was  of  the  Church  of  England. 
"Well,"  said  the  Saint,  "enter,  and  place  yourself  there 
among  the  Anglicans."  A  third  said  he  was  a  Quaker. 
"  Enter,"  said  St.  Peter,  "  and  take  your  place  among  the 
Quakers."  At  length  my  turn  being  come,  he  asked  me  of 
what  religion  I  was.  "Alas!"  said  I,  "poor  Jacques  Mon- 
tresor has  none."  "  T  is  a  pity,"  said  the  Saint ;  "  I  know 
not  where  to  place  you;  but  enter  nevertheless,  and  place  your- 
self where  you  can"' 

As  this  would  indicate,  Franklin  had  that  rarest  kind 
of  tolerance  which  tolerates  the  opinions  of  others,  and 
though  he  laughingly  asserted  that  "  Orthodoxy  is  my 
doxy,  and  heterodoxy  is  your  doxy,"  his  whole  life  was 
one  contradiction  of  the  epigram,  for  the  faith  or  lack 
of  faith  of  his  circle  of  friends  ranged  from  that  of  the 
most  doctrinal  of  ministers  to  the  most  radical  of  free- 

'57 


THE    MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

thinkers.  For  such  rigid  Puritans  as  the  Rev.  Drs. 
Cooper  and  Mather  of  Boston,  for  the  enthusiast 
Whitefield,  for  the  Anglican  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  and 
for  the  Abbes  de  La  Roche  and  Morellet  he  showed  as 
much  affection  and  respect  as  he  did  for  Hume,  Lord 
Le  Despenser,  Thomas  Paine,  and  others  closer  in 
accord  with  his  own  views.  Nor  was  it  ever  a  one- 
sided regard.  No  man  in  Pennsylvania  exercised  such 
influence  over  the  Quakers.  Massachusetts  made  him 
her  agent  in  Great  Britain,  and  he  served  her  faithfully, 
even  to  the  defending  of  her  religious  intolerance 
against  English  criticism.  In  France  the  papal  nuncio 
consulted  him  frequently  and  followed  his  advice  in 
the  changes  the  Revolutionary  War  made  possible  or 
necessary  in  the  Catholic  Church  in  America.  Abso- 
lutely unsectarian  as  he  was,  Franklin  apparently  was 
trusted  by  all  sects,  and  he  seems  never  to  have  refused 
a  service  that  he  could  render  any  one  of  them.  Some 
few  special  incidents  are  worth  noting  as  throwing  light 
on  the  attitude  of  the  man. 

In  1739  the  Rev.  George  Whitefield,  the  itinerant, 
came  to  America,  and  "  was  at  first  permitted  to  preach 
in  some  of  the  churches ;  but  the  clergy  taking  a  dis- 
like to  him  soon  refus'd  him  their  pulpits,  and  he  was 
oblig'd  to  preach  in  the  fields.  ...  It  being  found 
inconvenient  to  assemble  in  the  open  air,  subject  to  its 
inclemencies,  the  building  of  a  house  to  meet  in  was  no 
sooner  propos'd  and  persons  appointed  to  receive  con- 
tributions but  sufficient  sums  were  soon  receiv'd  to  pro- 
cure the  ground  and  erect  the  building,  which  was  one 
hundred  feet  long  and  seventy  broad,  about  the  size  of 

158 


RELIGION 

Westminster  Hall."  Of  this  building  Franklin  was 
made  a  trustee,  and  undoubtedly  he  was  largely  re- 
sponsible for  the  liberality  which  dedicated  it  to 

"  The  use  of  any  preacher  of  any  religious  persuasion  who 
might  desire  to  say  something  to  the  people  of  Philadelphia ; 
the  design  .  .  .  not  being  to  accommodate  any  particular 
sect,  but  the  inhabitants  in  general ;  so  that  even  if  the  Mufti 
of  Constantinople  were  to  send  a  missionary  to  preach 
Mohammedanism  to  us,  he  would  find  a  pulpit  at  his  service." 

Franklin  relates  that  Whitefield  "  us'd,  indeed,  some- 
times to  pray  for  my  conversion,  but  he  never  had  the 
satisfaction  of  believing  that  his  prayers  were  heard. 
Ours  was  a  mere  civil  friendship,  sincere  on  both  sides, 
and  lasting  to  his  death."  He  adds  an  incident  which 
"  will  show  something  of  the  terms  on  which  we  stood." 
Having  asked  Whitefield  to  make  his  home  with  him 
while  in  Philadelphia,  "  he  reply'd  that  if  I  made  that 
kind  offer  for  Christ's  sake  I  should  not  miss  of  a  re- 
ward. And  I  returned :  'Don't  let  me  be  mistaken;  it 
was  not  for  Christ's  sake,  but  for  your  own  sake'  One 
of  our  common  acquaintance  jocosely  remark'd,  that, 
knowing  it  to  be  the  custom  of  the  saints,  when  they 
received  any  favour,  to  shift  the  burden  of  the  obliga- 
tion from  off  their  own  shoulders,  and  place  it  in 
heaven,  I  had  contriv'd  to  fix  it  on  earth." 

A  would-be  service  on  behalf  of  episcopacy  had,  if 
anything,  even  less  religious  feeling  in  it.  In  1770 
Lord  Le  Despenser,  one  of  King  George's  privy  coun- 
cilors, was  made  joint  Postmaster-General  of  Great 
Britain.  Despite  these  public  offices,  he  was  best 
known  to  his  own  generation  as  "  the  Abbot "  of  the 

159 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

famous  "  Monks  of  Medmenham,"  a  club  the  purposes 
and  meetings  of  which,  modeled  upon  those  of  the 
ancients,  were  at  once  the  most  libertine  and  the  most 
impious  known  to  modern  times,  no  immorality  or  blas- 
phemy being  too  gross  for  their  orgies.  The  baron, 
apparently  thinking  his  own  reformation  either  impos- 
sible or  too  great  a  task,  undertook  the  reformation  of 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer.  As  Postmaster-General 
for  America,  Franklin  was  thrown  into  close  relations 
with  his  chief,  and,  becoming  a  friend  as  well,  visited 
Lord  Le  Despenser  at  his  country  house.  His  host 
begged  his  aid  in  the  revision  of  the  Prayer-book, 
asking  Franklin  to  take  as  his  share 

"  The  Catechism  and  the  reading  and  singing  Psalms.  These 
I  abridged  by  retaining  of  the  Catechism  only  the  two  ques- 
tions :  What  is  your  duty  to  God  ?  What  is  your  duty  to  your 
neighbor?  with  answers.  The  Psalms  were  much  contracted 
by  leaving  out  the  repetitions  (of  which  I  found  more  than  I 
could  have  imagined)  and  the  imprecations,  which  appeared 
not  to  suit  well  the  Christian  doctrine  of  forgiveness  of  in- 
juries and  doing  good  to  enemies.  The  book  was  printed  for 
Willde,  in  St.  Paul's  Churchyard,  but  never  much  noticed. 
Some  were  given  away,  very  few  sold,  and  I  suppose  the  bulk 
became  waste  paper." 

The  Anglican  Church  did  not  take  kindly  to  an  im- 
provement from  such  a  source ;  but  in  America,  where 
the  book  was  known  as  "  Franklin's  Prayer-book,"  it 
attracted  attention,  and  when,  after  the  separation,  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  this  country  set  to  work  to  frame 
a  ritual,  the  clergymen  who  prepared  the  Proposed 
Prayer-book  studied  this  abridgment  with  care,  and 
adopted  certain  ideas  from  it. 

1 60 


LORD  LE  DF:SPKNSKR. 

From  a  print  in  the  possession  of  Paul  Leicester  Ford. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

A  traveling  companion  in  Franklin's  journey  to 
Canada  in  1776  was  the  Rev.  John  Carroll  of  Mary- 
land, the  Continental  Congress  having  requested  him  to 
go  with  their  commissioners,  in  the  hope  that,  as  a 
Roman  Catholic  priest,  he  would  exercise  particular  in- 
fluence with  the  French  Canadians.  No  such  result 
was  attained,  but  he  and  Franklin  formed  a  warm 
friendship,  which  was  made  the  more  lasting  by  Car- 
roll's attention  when  the  exposure  and  fatigue  of  the 
trip  broke  down  Franklin's  health.  The  service  in  time 
was  rewarded,  for  when  Franklin  was  applied  to  by  the 
papal  nuncio  at  Paris  to  name  the  man  best  fitted  to 
be  the  first  Roman  Catholic  bishop  of  America,  he 
named  Carroll,  who  received  the  appointment. 

With  this  same  nuncio  was  partly  transacted  an  affair 
which  well  illustrates  not  merely  how  little  value  Frank- 
lin placed  upon  forms  and  creeds,  but  how  little  he  ap- 
preciated the  value  set  upon  them  by  others.  Two 
young  American  clergymen  wrote  to  him  in  1 784  that 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  had  refused  to  ordain 
them  ministers  of  the  Episcopal  Church  unless  they 
would  first  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Great  Britain, 
and  besought  his  assistance.  In  his  endeavor  to  help 
them  Franklin  asked  the  nuncio  if  he  would  not  ordain 
them,  but  was  told  "  the  thing  is  impossible  unless  the 
gentlemen  become  Catholics."  Franklin  therefore 
advised  them,  first,  that  they  become  Presbyterians,  and 
next,  if  that  did  not  suit  them,  that  they  ordain  them- 
selves; and,  as  usual,  he  ends  his  advice  with  an  argu- 
ment and  a  story  to  illustrate  the  absurdity  of  Ameri- 
cans looking  to  Great  Britain  for  ordination : 

162 


RELIGION 

"  If  the  British  Islands  were  sunk  in  the  sea  (and  the  sur- 
face of  this  globe  has  suffered   greater  changes),  you  would 


X$x5xfc,:jy,r: 

ABRIDGEMENT 

O  F 

THE  BOOK  OF 


Common 


And  Adminiftration  of  the 


SAC  R  A  ME  NT  s 


AND    OTHER 


Rites  and  Ceremonies 


CHURCH,! 

According  to  the  Ufc  of  $ 

Cljurcl)  of  Cnglano :     •   S 


TOGETHER  WITH  THK 


PSALTER,   or  PSALMSl 

DAVID, 

Pointed  as  they  are  to  be  fung  or  faid  in  Chorehes. 


LONDON: 

Printed  in  the  Year  MDCCLXXIII. 


TITLE-PAGE  OF  LE  DESPENSER  S  AND  FRANKLIN  S 
ABRIDGMENT   OF  THE  PRAYER-BOOK. 
From  the  copy  in  the  Congressional  Library. 

probably  take  some  such  method  as  this ;  and,  if  they  persist 
in  denying  you  ordination,  it  is  the  same  thing.  A  hundred 
years  hence,  when  people  are  more  enlightened,  it  will  be 
wondered  at  that  men  in  America,  qualified  by  their  learning 

163 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

and  piety  to  pray  for  and  instruct  their  neighbors,  should 
not  be  permitted  to  do  it  till  they  had  made  a  voyage  of  six 
thousand  miles  out  and  home,  to  ask  leave  of  a  cross  old 
gentleman  at  Canterbury,  who  seems,  by  your  account,  to 
have  as  little  regard  for  the  souls  of  the  people  of  Maryland 
as  King  William's  Attorney-General,  Seymour,  had  for  those 
of  Virginia.  The  Reverend  Commissary  Blair,  who  projected 
the  college  of  that  province,  and  was  in  England  to  solicit 
benefactions  and  a  charter,  relates  that  the  queen,  in  the 
king's  absence,  having  ordered  Seymour  to  draw  up  the 
charter,  which  was  to  be  given,  with  two  thousand  pounds  in 
money,  he  opposed  the  grant,  saying  that  the  nation  was 
engaged  in  an  expensive  war,  that  the  money  was  wanted  for 
better  purposes,  and  he  did  not  see  the  least  occasion  for  a 
college  in  Virginia.  Blair  represented  to  him  that  its  intention 
was  to  educate  and  qualify  young  men  to  be  ministers  of  the 
Gospel,  much  wanted  there,  and  begged  Mr.  Attorney  would 
consider  that  the  people  of  Virginia  had  souls  to  be  saved, 
as  well  as  the  people  of  England.  '  Sotils  !  '  said  he,  '  damn 
your  souls  !  Make  tobacco  !  ' ' 

A  friendship  begun  in  London  was  that  with  Thomas 
Paine,  and  when  the  yet  unknown  man  emigrated  to 
America,  he  carried  letters  of  recommendation  from 
Franklin  to  various  Philadelphians.  Their  relations, 
upon  Franklin's  return  to  America  in  1775,  were  inti- 
mate enough  to  have  the  public  believe  for  a  time  that 
"  Common  Sense  "  was  really  from  Franklin's  pen,  and 
only  pretendedly  written  by  Paine ;  and  though  the 
crude  style  of  the  pamphlet  should  have  prevented  the 
rumor  from  gaining  currency,  Franklin  was  in  a  manner 
concerned,  for  he  had  read  over  the  manuscript  and 
had  suggested  changes  in  it.  Ten  years  later  Paine 
also  submitted  to  him  the  first  draft  of  the  "  Age  of 
Reason,"  and  the  advice  Franklin  gave  him  is  worthy 
of  full  quotation : 

164 


Engraved  by  W.  Sharp,  after  a  portrait  by  Roinney.      From  a  print  in  tl 
possession  of  E.  G.  Kennedy 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"  I  have  read  your  manuscript  with  some  attention.  By 
the  argument  it  contains  against  a  particular  Providence, 
though  you  allow  a  general  Providence,  you  strike  at  the 
foundations  of  all  religion.  For,  without  the  belief  of  a 
Providence  that  takes  cognisance  of,  guards,  and  guides,  arid 
may  favor  particular  persons,  there  is  no  motive  to  worship  a 
Deity,  to  fear  his  displeasure,  or  to  pray  for  his  protection.  I 
will  not  enter  into  any  discussion  of  your  principles,  though 
you  seem  to  desire  it.  At  present  I  shall  only  give  you  my 
opinion  that,  though  your  reasons  are  subtile,  and  may  pre- 
vail with  some  readers,  you  will  not  succeed  so  as  to  change 
the  general  sentiments  of  mankind  on  that  subject,  and  the 
consequence  of  printing  this  piece  will  be,  a  great  deal  of 
odium  drawn  upon  yourself,  mischief  to  you,  and  no  benefit 
to  others.  He  that  spits  against  the  wind  spits  in  his  own 
face. 

"  But  were  you  to  succeed,  do  you  imagine  any  good  would 
be  done  by  it?  You  yourself  may  find  it  easy  to  live  a  vir- 
tuous life,  without  the  assistance  afforded  by  religion ;  you 
having  a  clear  perception  of  the  advantage  of  virtue,  and  the 
disadvantages  of  vice,  and  possessing  a  strength  of  resolution 
sufficient  to  enable  you  to  resist  common  temptations.  But 
think  how  great  a  portion  of  mankind  consists  of  weak  and 
ignorant  men  and  women,  and  of  inexperienced,  inconsider- 
ate youth  of  both  sexes,  who  have  need  of  the  motives  of 
religion  to  restrain  them  from  vice,  to  support  their  virtue,  and 
retain  them  in  the  practice  of  it  till  it  becomes  habitual,  which 
is  the  great  point  for  its  security.  And  perhaps  you  are  in- 
debted to  her  originally,  that  is,  to  your  religious  education, 
for  the  habits  of  virtue  upon  which  you  now  justly  value 
yourself.  You  might  easily  display  your  excellent  talents  of 
reasoning  upon  a  less  hazardous  subject,  and  thereby  obtain 
a  rank  with  our  most  distinguished  authors.  For  among  us 
it  is  not  necessary,  as  among  the  Hottentots,  that  a  youth,  to 
be  raised  into  the  company  of  men,  should  prove  his  man- 
hood by  beating  his  mother. 

"  I  would  advise  you,  therefore,  not  to  attempt  unchaining 
the  tiger,  but  to  burn  this  piece  before  it  is  seen  by  any  other 
person,  whereby  you  will  save  yourself  a  great  deal  of  morti- 
fication by  the  enemies  it  may  raise  against  you,  and  perhaps 

166 


RELIGION 

a  great  deal  of  regret  and  repentance.  If  men  are  so  wicked 
with  religion,  what  would  they  be  if  without  it  ?  " 

Certainly  Paine  later  had  good  reason  to  appreciate  the 
shrewdness  and  good  sense  of  this  advice,  for,  as  Poor 
Richard  had  long  before  declared,  "  Talking  against 
religion  is  unchaining  the  Tyger;  the  Beast  let  loose 
may  worry  his  Deliverer." 

Franklin,  however,  drew  a  great  distinction  between 
a  man  who  attacked  the  religion  of  others  and  a  man 
who  merely  declared  his  own  honest  convictions. 
"  Remember  me  affectionately  to  good  Dr.  Price  and 
the  honest  heretic  Dr.  Priestley,"  he  once  requested  of 
a  correspondent,  adding: 

"  I  do  not  call  him  honest  by  way  of  distinction,  for  I  think 
all  the  heretics  I  have  known  have  been  virtuous  men.  They 
have  the  virtue  of  fortitude,  or  they  would  not  venture  to  own 
their  heresy ;  and  they  cannot  afford  to  be  deficient  in  any  of 
the  other  virtues,  as  that  would  give  advantage  to  their 
enemies ;  and  they  have  not,  like  orthodox  sinners,  such  a 
number  of  friends  to  excuse  or  justify  them.  Do  not,  how- 
ever, mistake  me.  It  is  not  to  my  good  friend's  heresy  that 
I  impute  his  honesty.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  his  honesty  that 
has  brought  upon  him  the  character  of  heretic." 

Franklin's  belief  in  the  value  of  religion  was  illus- 
trated in  the  Federal  Convention  of  1787.  At  a  cer- 
tain stage  of  the  discussion,  the  differences  of  opinion 
which  had  developed  were  apparently  irreconcilable  and 
threatened  to  put  an  end  to  the  gathering.  He  there- 
upon made  his  famous  motion  for  prayers,  and  when  it 
was  voted  down,  he  indorsed  on  the  manuscript,  in  either 
surprise  or  indignation :  "  The  Convention,  except  three 
or  four  Persons,  thought  Prayers  unnecessary!  ! 

,67 


THE  PAGES  OF   FRANKLIN  S   MOTION    FOR  PRAYERS  IN   THE 

FEDERAL  CONVENTION. 
In  the  Department  of  State,  Washington. 


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THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

As  already  mentioned,  Franklin  as  early  as  1728  had 
composed  his  own  prayer-book,  and  in  his  "  scheme  of 
employment  for  the  twenty-four  hours  of  a  natural  day  " 
he  began  his  day :  "  Rise,  wash,  and  address  Powerful 
Goodness!  "  Poor  Richard,  too,  told  his  readers  they 
ought  to  "  Work  as  if  you  were  to  live  100  years,  pray  as 
if  you  were  to  die  to-morrow."  Less  seriously,  Frank- 
lin wrote,  apropos  of  a  New  England  clergyman's 
prayer  against  a  French  garrison:  "Father  Moody's 
prayers  look  tolerably  modest.  You  have  a  fast  and 
prayer  day  for  that  purpose;  in  which  I  compute  five 
hundred  thousand  petitions  were  offered  up  to  the  same 
effect  in  New  England,  which,  added  to  the  petitions 
of  every  family  morning  and  evening,  multiplied  by  the 
number  of  days  since  January  25th,  make  forty-five 
millions  of  prayers ;  which,  set  against  the  prayers  of  a 
few  priests  in  the  garrison,  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  give  a 
vast  balance  in  your  favor." 

Franklin  was  able  to  joke  thus  because  he  himself 
placed  works  far  above  worship,  and  he  made  Poor 
Richard  remark :  "  Serving  God  is  doing  good  to 
Man,  but  praying  is  thought  an  easier  serving,  and 
therefore  most  generally  chosen."  Yet  he  did  not  think 
that  the  most  altruistic  life  entitled  one  to  immortality. 

"  For  my  own  part,"  he  wrote,  "  when  I  am  employed  in 
serving  others,  I  do  not  look  upon  myself  as  conferring 
favours,  but  as  paying  debts.  In  my  travels  and  since  my 
settlement  I  have  received  much  kindness  from  men,  to  whom 
I  shall  never  have  any  opportunity  of  making  the  least  direct 
return,  and  numberless  mercies  from  God,  who  is  infinitely 
above  being  benefited  by  our  services.  These  kindnesses 
from  men  I  can  therefore  only  return  on  their  fellow-men ; 

170 


RELIGION 

and  I  can  only  show  my  gratitude  for  those  mercies  from 
God,  by  a  readiness  to  help  his  other  children  and  my 
brethren.  For  I  do  not  think  that  thanks  and  compliments 
tho'  repeated  weekly,  can  discharge  our  real  obligations  to 
each  other,  and  much  less  those  to  our  Creator. 

"  You  will  see  in  this  my  notion  of  good  works,  that  I  am  far 
from  expecting  (as  you  suppose)  that  I  shall  ever  merit 
heaven  by  them.  By  heaven  we  understand  a  state  of  hap- 
piness, infinite  in  degree  and  eternal  in  duration.  I  can  do 
nothing  to  deserve  such  reward.  He  that  for  giving  a  draught 
of  water  to  a  thirsty  person  should  expect  to  be  paid  with  a 
good  plantation,  would  be  modest  in  his  demands,  compared 
with  those  who  think  they  deserve  heaven  for  the  little  good 
they  do  on  earth.  Even  the  mixed,  imperfect  pleasures  we 
enjoy  in  this  world  are  rather  from  God's  goodness  than  our 
merit ;  how  much  more  such  happiness  in  heaven.  For  my 
own  part,  I  have  not  the  vanity  to  think  I  deserve  it,  the  folly 
to  expect  it,  nor  the  ambition  to  desire  it ;  but  content  myself 
in  submitting  to  the  will  and  disposal  of  that  God  who  made 
me,  who  hitherto  preserv'd  and  bless'd  me,  and  in  whose 
fatherly  goodness  I  may  well  confide,  that  he  will  never  make 
me  miserable,  and  that  even  the  afflictions  I  may  at  any  time 
suffer  shall  tend  to  my  benefit." 


This  conviction  is  constantly  reiterated  in  his  writ- 
ings. When  Whitefield  expressed  a  hope  for  his 
"eternal"  as  well  as  his  temporal  happiness,  Franklin 
wrote  back :  "  I  have  myself  no  doubt,  that  I  shall 
enjoy  as  much  of  both  as  is  proper  for  me.  That 
Being,  who  gave  me  existence,  and  through  almost 
three-score  years  has  been  continually  showering  his 
favors  upon  me,  whose  very  chastisements  have  been 
blessings  to  me ;  can  I  doubt  that  he  loves  me  ?  And 
if  he  loves  me,  can  I  doubt  that  he  will  go  on  to  take 
care  of  me,  not  only  here  but  hereafter?  This  to  some 
may  seem  presumption;  to  me  it  appears  the  best 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

grounded  hope  ;  hope  of  the  future  built  on  experience 
of  the  past."  He  even  found  in  the  evil  of  the  world 
further  reason  for  his  faith  : 


FIRST  PAGE  OF  FRANKLIN'S   PRIVATE   DEVOTIONAL  BOOK. 

"  I  find  in  this  life  there  are  many  troubles.  But  it  appears 
to  me  also  that  there  are  many  more  pleasures.  This  is  why 
I  love  to  live.  One  must  not  blame  Providence  inconsider- 
ately. Reflect  on  how  many  of  our  duties  even  she  has  made 

172 


RELIGION 

to  be  pleasures  naturally  ;  and  has  had  the  further  kindness  to 
give  the  name  of  sin  to  several  so  that  we  may  enjoy  them 
with  more  relish! " 

Franklin  expressed  this  same  opinion  with  some  bitter- 
ness in  a  letter  which  touched  upon  the  Revolutionary 
War,  and  the  power  by  which  a  "  single  man  [George 
III]  in  England  who  happens  to  love  blood  and  to  hate 
Americans "  should  have  been  permitted  to  destroy 
"  near  one  hundred  thousand  human  creatures."  "I 
wonder  at  this,  but  I  cannot  therefore  part  with  the 
comfortable  belief  of  a  Divine  Providence ;  and  the 
more  I  see  the  impossibility,  from  the  number  and  ex- 
tent of  his  crimes,  of  giving  equivalent  punishment  to 
a  wicked  man  in  this  life,  the  more  I  am  convinced  of 
a  future  state,  in  which  all  that  here  appears  to  be 
wrong  shall  be  set  right,  all  that  is  crooked  made 
straight.  In  this  faith  let  you  and  me,  my  dear  friend, 
comfort  ourselves ;  it  is  the  only  comfort,  in  the  present 
dark  scene  of  things,  that  is  allowed  us."  But  he  was 
too  much  of  a  scientist  to  base  his  belief  solely  on  such 
abstractions,  and  his  chief  argument  has  a  touch  of 
modernity  that  is  very  striking: 

"  You  see  I  have  some  reason  to  wish  that,  in  a  future  state, 
I  may  not  only  be  as  well  as  I  was,  but  a  little  better.  And  I 
hope  it ;  for  I,  too,  with  your  poet,  trust  in  God.  And  when 
I  observe  that  there  is  great  frugality  as  well  as  wisdom  in  his 
works,  since  he  has  been  evidently  sparing  both  of  labor  and 
materials,  for  by  the  various  inventions  of  propagation  he  has 
provided  for  the  continual  peopling  his  world  with  plants  and 
animals,  without  being  at  the  trouble  of  repeated  new  creations  ; 
and  by  the  natural  reduction  of  compound  substances  to  their 
original  elements,  capable  of  being  employed  in  new  com- 

'73 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

positions,  he  has  prevented  the  necessity  of  creating  new 
matter ;  so  that  the  earth,  water,  air,  and  perhaps  fire,  which, 
being  compounded  from  wood,  do,  when  the  wood  is  dissolved, 
return,  and  again  become  air,  earth,  fire,  and  water ;  —  I  say 
that  when  I  see  nothing  annihilated,  and  not  even  a  drop  of 
water  wasted,  I  cannot  suspect  the  annihilation  of  souls,  or 
believe  that  he  will  suffer  the  daily  waste  of  millions  of  minds 
ready  made  that  now  exist,  and  put  himself  to  the  continual 
trouble  of  making  new  ones.  Thus  finding  myself  to  exist  in 
the  world,  I  believe  I  shall,  in  some  shape  or  other,  always 
exist ;  and,  with  all  the  inconveniences  human  life  is  liable  to, 
I  shall  not  object  to  a  new  edition  of  mine ;  hoping,  however, 
that  the  errata  of  the  last  may  be  corrected." 

Not  quite  six  weeks  before  his  death,  at  the  request 
of  a  friend,  he  wrote  out  what  he  had  come  to  believe : 

"  You  desire  to  know  something  of  my  religion.  It  is  the 
first  time  I  have  been  questioned  upon  it,  but  I  cannot  take 
your  curiosity  amiss  and  shall  endeavor  in  a  few  words  to 
gratify  it.  Here  is  my  creed.  I  believe  in  one  God,  the 
Creator  of  the  Universe.  That  he  governs  it  by  his  Provi- 
dence. That  he  ought  to  be  worshipped.  The  most  accep- 
table service  we  render  to  him  is  doing  good  to  his  other 
children.  The  soul  of  man  is  immortal  and  will  be  treated 
with  justice  in  another  life  respecting  its  conduct  in  this. 
These  I  take  to  be  the  fundamental  points  in  all  sound 
religion,  and  I  regard  them,  as  you  do,  in  whatever  sect  I 
meet  with  them. 

"  As  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  my  opinion  of  whom  you  par- 
ticularly desire,  I  think  his  system  of  morals  and  his  religion, 
as  he  left  them  to  us,  the  best  the  world  ever  saw,  or  is  like 
to  see ;  but  I  apprehend  it  has  received  various  corrupting 
changes,  and  I  have,  with  most  of  the  present  Dissenters  in 
England,  some  doubts  as  to  his  divinity;  though  it  is  a  ques- 
tion I  do  not  dogmatize  upon,  having  never  studied  it,  and 
think  it  needless  to  busy  myself  with  it  now,  when  I  expect 
soon  an  opportunity  of  knowing  the  truth  with  less  trouble. 
I  see  no  harm,  however,  in  its  being  believed,  if  that  belief 
has  the  good  consequence,  as  probably  it  has,  of  making  his 

»74 


RELIGION 

doctrines  more  respected  and  more  observed ;  especially  as  I 
do  not  perceive  that  the  Supreme  takes  it  amiss,  by  distin- 
guishing the  unbelievers  in  his  government  of  the  world  with 
any  peculiar  mark  of  displeasure. 

"I  shall  only  add,  respecting  myself,  that,  having  experi- 
enced the  goodness  of  that  Being  in  conducting  me  prosper- 
ously through  a  long  life,  I  have  no  doubt  of  its  continuance 
in  the  next,  though  without  the  smallest  conceit  of  meriting 
such  goodness." 

This  was  written  while  Franklin  was  suffering  almost 
constant  physical  torture,  which  he  endured,  so  an  eye- 
witness tells  us,  "  with  that  calm  fortitude  which  char- 
acterised him  through  life.  No  repining,  no  peevish 
expression,  ever  escaped  him  during  a  confinement  of 
two  years,  in  which,  I  believe,  if  every  moment  of  ease 
could  be  added  together,  [it]  would  not  amount  to  two 
whole  months.  .  .  .  Even  when  the  intervals  from 
pain  were  so  short  that  his  words  were  frequently  in- 
terrupted, I  have  known  him  to  hold  a  discourse  in  a 
sublime  strain  of  piety.  ...  It  is  natural  for  us  to 
wish  that  an  attention  to  some  ceremonies  had  accom- 
panied that  religion  of  the  heart  which  I  am  convinced 
Dr.  Franklin  always  possessed ;  but  let  us  who  feel  the 
benefit  of  them,  continue  to  practise  them,  without 
thinking  lightly  of  that  piety,  which  could  support  pain 
without  a  murmur,  and  meet  death  without  terror." 
In  a  letter  of  condolence  which  Franklin  wrote  to  a 
relative  on  the  death  of  his  brother,  he  said : 

"It  is  the  will  of  God  and  nature  that  these  mortal  bodies 
be  laid  aside  when  the  soul  is  to  enter  into  real  life.  This  is 
rather  an  embryo  state,  a  preparation  for  living.  A  man  is 
not  completely  born  until  he  be  dead.  Why  then  should  we 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

grieve  that  a  new  child  is  born  among  the  immortals,  a  new 
member  added  to  their  society? 

"  We  are  spirits.  That  bodies  should  be  lent  us,  while 
they  can  afford  us  pleasure,  assist  us  in  acquiring  knowledge, 
or  in  doing  good  to  our  fellow  creatures,  is  a  kind  and  be- 
nevolent act  of  God.  When  they  become  unfit  for  these 
purposes,  and  afford  us  pain  instead  of  pleasure,  instead  of  an 
aid  become  an  incumbrance,  and  answer  none  of  the  inten- 
tions for  which  they  were  given,  it  is  equally  kind  and  benevo- 
lent that  a  way  is  provided  by  which  we  may  get  rid  of  them. 
Death  is  that  way.  We  ourselves,  in  some  cases,  prudently 
choose  a  partial  death.  A  mangled  painful  limb  which  cannot 
be  restored  we  willingly  cut  off.  He  who  plucks  out  a  tooth 
parts  with  it  freely,  since  the  pain  goes  with  it ;  and  he  who 
quits  the  whole  body,  parts  at  once  with  all  pains  and  possi- 
bilities of  pains  and  diseases  which  it  was  liable  to  or  capable 
of  making  him  suffer. 

"  Our  friend  and  we  were  invited  abroad  on  a  party  of 
pleasure,  which  is  to  last  for  ever.  His  chair  was  ready  first, 
and  he  is  gone  before  us.  We  could  not  all  conveniently  start 
together ;  and  why  should  you  and  I  be  grieved  at  this,  since 
we  are  so  soon  to  follow,  and  know  where  to  find  him?  Adieu." 


OLD  QUAKER  MEETING-HOUSE,   PHILADELPHIA.      (WHERE   FRANKLIN 
WENT  TO   SLEEP.) 

Southwest  corner  of  Second  and  Market  streets.     Court-house  in  the  middle 
of  the  street.     After  an  old  lithograph. 

176 


"^WS^?3 


*.  -•*     1 

ft  <=*LO    — ••»   1 


• /f. 


HILL  FOR   "  PENNSYLVANIA  GAZETTE"   IN   FRANKLIN'S   HANDWRITING. 
Original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 


V 
PRINTER    AND    PUBLISHER 

"  T  7IRTUE  and  a  Trade,  are  a  Child's  best  Portion," 
V  said  Poor  Richard,  and  he  not  merely  claimed, 
"  He  that  hath  a  Trade,  hath  an  Estate,"  but  "  He 
that  has  a  Trade  has  an  Office  of  Profit  and  Honour." 
Through  all  Franklin's  life,  he  never  missed  an  oppor- 
tunity to  praise  the  workman,  be  his  calling  what  it 
might,  and  nowhere  did  he  show  more  pride  than  in  his 
own  particular  handicraft. 

Printing  was  not  a  family  "  mystery,"  as  it  was  then 
termed,  of  the  Franklins,  they  having  hitherto  been 
blacksmiths,  dyers,  or  soap-makers.  But  Josiah,  with 
ten  boys  to  place  in  the  world,  had  to  seek  other  crafts, 
and  James  Franklin  was  sent  to  London,  presumptively 

177 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

to  his  uncle  Benjamin,  and  there  apprenticed  to  a 
printer.  His  time  out,  he  purchased  a  press  and  types, 
and  returning  to  Boston  in  March,  1717,  established 
"  his  Printing  House  in  Queen  Street,  near  the  Prison," 
otherwise  described  as  "  over  against  Mr.  Mills  Schools." 
Thanks  to  his  English  training,  probably,  he  was  a  good 
workman,  and  the  issues  of  his  press  rank  among  the 
best  of  American  printing  of  his  time.  From  the  first 
he  seems  to  have  prospered,  and  within  a  year  needed 
an  apprentice,  who  was  easily  found  in  his  brother  Ben- 
jamin, though  not  so  easily  bound,  for  the  lad  had  a 
"  hankering  for  the  sea,"  and  so  objected  to  being  ap- 
prenticed to  the  more  humdrum  life  of  printer's  devil. 
"  I  stood  out  some  time,"  he  relates,  "  but  at  last  was 
persuaded  and  signed  the  indentures  when  I  was  but 
twelve  years  old.  I  was  to  serve  as  an  apprentice  till 
I  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  only  I  was  to  be  allowed 
journeyman's  wages  during  the  last  year.  In  a  little 
time  I  made  great  proficiency  in  the  business  and 
became  a  very  useful  hand  to  my  brother."  It  was 
certainly  good  fortune  which  secured  him  the  instruc- 
tion of  a  master  printer  of  London  training  instead  of 
some  slovenly  self-taught  colonial,  for,  as  Poor  Richard 
remarked,  "  Learn  of  the  skilful :  He  that  teaches  him- 
self hath  a  fool  for  his  master." 

It  is  to  be  questioned  if  the  first  years  of  the  ap- 
prenticeship were  of  any  particular  value  to  Benjamin, 
save  on  their  mechanic  side,  for  the  product  of  James 
Franklin's  press  is  a  dreary  lot  of  "gone-nothingness." 
A  few  of  the  New  England  sermons  of  the  day ;  Stod- 
dard's  "  Treatise  on  Conversion  "  ;  Stone's  "  Short 

178 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

Catechism  "  ;  "A  Prefatory  Letter  about  Psalmody," 
in  defense  of  church  singing,  which  many  Puritans  still 
held  to  be  unholy ;  an  allegory  styled  "  The  Isle  of 
Man,  or,  Legal  Proceedings  in  Manshire  Against  Sin  "  ; 
Care's  "English  Liberties";  sundry  pamphlets  on  the 
local  politics  of  the  moment,  such  as  "  A  Letter  from 
One  in  the  Country  to  his  Friend  in  Boston,"  "  News 
from  the  Moon,"  "  A  Friendly  Check  from  a  Kind 
Relation  to  the  Chief  Cannonneer,"  and  "A  Word  of 
Comfort  to  a  Melancholy  Country " ;  two  or  three 
tractates  on  inoculation,  and  one  aimed  half  at  the  Bos- 
ton clergy  and  half  at  the  fair  sex,  entitled  "  Hooped 
Petticoats  Arraigned  by  the  Light  of  Nature  and  the 
Law  of  God,"  were  the  chief  output  of  the  new  printer 
during  the  years  his  brother  served  him. 

In  1719  a  more  interesting  job  was  undertaken,  for 
the  postmaster  of  Boston  employed  James  Franklin  to 
print  for  him  the  "  Boston  Gazette,"  the  third  paper 
issued  in  America.  The  contract  was  a  short  one,  for 
the  appointment  of  a  new  official  led  to  other  changes, 
and  the  printer,  having  supplied  his  office  with  what 
was  needful  for  a  newspaper  and  trained  his  men  in  the 
work,  found  himself  left  in  the  lurch.  Partly  in  retali- 
ation, and  partly  to  utilize  this  experience  and  material, 
James  Franklin,  though  "  dissuaded  by  some  of  his 
friends  from  the  undertaking,  as  not  likely  to  succeed, 
one  newspaper  being,  in  their  judgment,  enough  for 
America,"  on  August  7,  1721,  issued  the  first  number 
of  "The  New  England  Courant,"  which  he  promised 
should  "  be  published  once  a  Fortnight,  and  out  of 
meer  Kindness  to  my  Brother-  Writers,  I  intend  now 

'79 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

and  then  to  be  (like  them)  very,  very  dull ;  for  I  have 
a  strong  Fancy,  that  unless  I  am  sometimes  flat  and 
low,  this  paper  will  not  be  very  grateful  to  them." 
The  dullness  was  to  be  only  one  feature  of  the  new 
venture,  however,  for  the  "  Publisher  earnestly  desires 
Ji is  Friends  may  favor  Jiim  from  time  to  time  ivith  some 
short  Piece,  Serious,  Sarcastick,  Ludicrous,  or  othcrivays 
amusing;  or  sometimes  professedly  Dul  (to  accomodate 
some  of  liis  Acquaintance)  that  this  Courant  may  be  of 
the  more  universal  Use." 

This  prospectus  was  taken  in  bad  part  by  the  already 
established  journals,  and  one  irate  rival  addressed  an 
open  letter  to  "  Jack  Dullman,"  taking  him  to  task  for 
his  "  very  very  frothy  fulsome  Account  of  himself  "  ;  a 
reproof  the  printer  acknowledged  in  a  joking  poem 
which  still  more  deeply  stirred  the  objector,  and  led 
him  to  reply  to  what  he  termed  "  Franklin's  hobbling 
Verse,"  which  came  not  "  from  Parnassus;  but  as  a  lit- 
tle before  the  Composure  you  had  been  rakeing  in  the 
Dunghill,  its  more  probable  the  corrupt  Streams  got 
into  your  Brains,  and  your  Dull  cold  Skul  precipitated 
them  into  Ribaldry." 

In  his  appeal  for  subscribers,  "The  Undertaker"  of 
the  "  Courant "  pledged  himself  that  nothing  should  be 
inserted  "  reflecting  on  the  Clergy  (as  such)  of  whatever 
Denomination,  nor  relating  to  the  Affairs  of  Govern- 
ment, and  no  Trespass  against  Decency  or  good  man- 
ners." As  already  told,  however,  the  "  Courant"  was 
quickly  breaking  lances  with  the  most  prominent  of  the 
Boston  clergy,  and  within  a  twelvemonth  of  its  begin- 
ning it  printed  an  article  which  by  implication  threw 

180 


New-England  ' 


From  M  o  »  0  A  Y  Jcbruaiy  4;  to  Mb  *  o  A  Y  February  ii.    172 


the  late  Ptiblifher  Of  this  Paper,  finding  fo  ttiany 
Inconvenieiicies  Would  trite  by  his  tarrying  the 
Mauufctlpts  *nd  public*. Newito  b«  fnpems'd 
by  the  Secretaiy,  as  to  tender  his  carrying  it  on 
unpwfiiable,  bis  intirely  dropl  the  Undertaking. 
The  prtfent  PublUrkt  having  receiv'd  the  follow- 
ing Piete<  defires  the  Retders  to  accept  of  it  as  * 
Preface  to  what  they  may  hereafter  rrre«t  with 
i  In  this  Paper.  » 

Son  cgt  monlnci  Jiflri**i  GxrHtiit  avevgvatt^      • 
vtnetita  Litert  ontftj  Joco  if.  • 

ONQ  ha*   the  Prefs 

gunned  in  bringing 
i'ottlt  ait  hateful,  but 
numerous  Brood  of  Wf- 
ty  rsmphlctSj  malici- 
ous  Scribbles,  and  RH- 
liirgfgate  Ribaldry.  The 
Kancour  (Wd  bittethefs 
it  has  unhappily  iTrftl- 
fed  into  Mens  minds, 
and  10  what  «  KegMe 
ii  hasfowred  and  led- 

,-  rr? . — .   i.      ven'd  the  Tempers  «f 

j>trfons  foMnaJy  efltemed  fome  of  the  *oft  f*e»i 
•rrd  aftabley  is  too  well  known  here,  tb  need  day 
further  Proof  01  RepreCeotation  of  the  M*ue».  * 
No  generous  tod  imp&jrtiat  Perfoa  then  cm  blame 
the  preterit  UodemWrrg,  which  is  defigned  purely 
for  the  Diverfion  and  Merriment  of  the  Reader. 
Pieces  of  Pleafan«yjod  Mirth  hgveafecret  Chaiw 
in  them  to  *Uay  the  Heats  snd  Tumors  of  our 
i  Spirits,  and  to  make  a  Man  forget  his  reftleft  Re- 
fx-ntinents.  They  have  a  ftrcnge  Power  to  tune  the 
haife'  Prffcrdett  of  rh;  Soul,  and  wduce  us  to  a  fe- 
'rwe  and  placid  State  of  AUnd".  ' 

The  irate  DeTrgn  6f  tirii  Weekly  Paper  will  be 
<o  entertain  the  Town  with  the  moft  comical  and 
•  diverting  Incidents  of  Humane  Life,  which  in  fo 
hry  a.  Place  as  Heart,  will  rfbt  fall  of  a  onlverfa"! 
.EsernpJrficatjon :  Norftttll  we  be  -wanting  to  fill  up 
ihefe  Papers  with  a  giateful  Interfg«rfk>n  of  (hore 
fe^tous  Morals,  whicfi  may  be  diawn  from  the  moft 
ludicrous  and  odd  Parts  of  Life. 

As  for  the  Author,  that  is  the  neit  Qaeftion: 
.But  tho'  we  profeTr  our  felvcs  rc»dy  to  oblige  the 
,  Jftgeoious  and  coyiteous  Reader  .^itb.  ujtrft  Sort* 
cflntcUigence,  yet  here  we  beg  a  Referst.  Nor  wjll 
it  be  of  any  Manner  of  Advantage  eitftei  t6  them  or 
to  fltf  Wffteh,  ttat  tBerr,  KjWes  «fefd.  be  pub- 
,ii(hed;  and  tharefflre.,in  thi»M»ttet  we  defrre  thtf 
Eavour  of  you  10  flitter  us  to  boli  0\ir  Tongues: 
Which  tho'  at  this  Time  of  IXy  it  may  found  t{ke 
sr  very  uncommon  Requtft,  yes.  it  proitedi  f/6ra 
•the  very  Heajrs  of  jour  Huiribli  Servants. 
'  By  this  Time  the  Reader  perce'iscs  tha't  tnvtc 
.tpsn  9ne  are  engaged  io  the  irteftar  UiSJertaking, 
Ya  istlwe  one  Prtfon,  au»  Inhabhani  of  this  Town 
,  of  itojlo*,  whom  we 'honour  as  a  Dott«r  ii»  the 
Chair,  or  *  perpetual.  Diilaior* 

The  Sock*y  .Jisul  defign'd  to  piefew  tfa  PfcbHok 
v-ith  his  EfKgies,  but  that  tht  LiinaeJ,  to  whoni 
ie  wax  jirefeated  For  a  Draught  of  his  C«^l»»enanct, 
defcijed  (  iml  this  he  is  ready  to  offer  upon  Oath) 
Ninetced  Features  in  hii  F«ce,  mow. 'ttau  ever  he 
'  behdd  in  any  Himaoe  ViTage  Ixfojwf  wliicli  fo 
railed  the  Price  of  1m  Piii.ure,  i^  oar  Matter 
Urofelf  forbid  ife  £ntravagiiic<of«offliniz  up  ioir.- 
And  then  befides,  the  Lim«t  ofjjeita'l  Schif.n  'in 
luj  Face,  wlirfb  iy\M  >:  ttom  itii  FoicJwRl  m  * 


ftrait  Liirt  do*n  to  his  Chin,  In  fueh  fort  thai 
Mr.  Painter  proteft*  It  is  a  double  Face,  and  he'll 
have  Four  Po'jnJt  for  the  Pouhraiture.  Howcvtr, 
tho'  this  double  Face  his  fpoilr  us  of  a  ftettjr 
Pkturc,  -yet  we  all  rejoiced  to  Tee  old  Ja*tis  ill  oof 


is  nb  Man  Jn  BoSon  better  qualified  tijaV- 
old  Janui  for*  Cmrnnittr,  or  if  you  plcafe,  an  Oi- 
fervator,  being  a  Man  of  fuch  remarkable  Oftick^ 
as  to  look  two  ways  at  once. 

At  for  hit  Morals,-  he  is  a  cbearly  Chiftisrt,  is 
the  Country  Phrafe  expretTes  it.  A  Man  of  good 
Temper,  coiuttons  Deportment,  found  Judgment  5 
It  mortal  Hater  of  Ndn&dfe,  Foppery,  Foiuialiiyj 
and  endlefs  Ceremony. 

As  for  bis  Clnb,  they  aiui  at  nb  greater  Happl- 
nefs  or  HoncAK,  than  the  Publick  be  tnide  to  k:it>*-, 
that  it  is  the  utmottof  thrir  Ambition  to  attend  UH- 
onanddo  all  imaginable  good  Offices  to  good  Old 
y.iniij  the  Courlnteer,  who  is  and  always  will  b* 
the  Readers  budjble  Servant.  <• 

t:  S.  Gentle  Readers,  we  dengrt  never  to  16*  a  Piper  psM 
withoat  aUtln  Motto  if  w?  cap  p«3SbI»  plttone  up,  whi& 
<arrie»a  Charm  W  U.  totfae  Vnlgjr,  ind  the  Jsarned  «*- 
m!re  ihe  plcafure  ofConftrdfrfg.  We  £hgJld  have  ohiigei 


all  the  <?*<*  Leant  by! 


o/our  C»Mn<>T  faedtrt  ;   re/Jfl/i  tbercfort  infttt  it  I* 
tits  Ddj't  etjtt. 

His  MAjEStY's  moft  Gracious  S?E£CH 
to  both  Houfes  of  Parliattri«nr,  ofl 
ThUrfday  Qttober  it,-  1722; 

Mj  Lorii  aJulGtnttcmt*, 

I  Am  forty  t6  find  rfjy  felf  obliged,  at  the'  Open- 
ing of  th/s  Parliament,  to  acqu.ai'i*  you,  TM< 
t  dVngtroiJs  Confpiracy  hfs's  bt&n  for  forte  time  fdr-< 
rqed,  and  Jsftill  carryingoa  againft  my  Pe<on  *ad 
Oo^ernrcaw,  la  Favour  ofaPopifli  Pretender. 
'  The  Difcoveties-Ihrve  niade  here,  the  Informati- 
ons I  have  received  ftom  ray  Minjfters  abroad,  and 
the  Intelligences  I  bav<  had  from  the  Powers  iti  Al- 
•fjance  with  me,  aiiti  liWefed  from  moft  puts  of  Eu- 
itepe,  have  given  rrferaoft  aoiule  and  curftirt  Proofs 
^6f  this  wkked  Oeffgm 

The  Cohfpirawfs  Wave,  6y  th'efr  Effliffs'rria,  &ifa 
•the-ftrongefl  Jriftanccs  for  Affiftance"  &om  Foreign 
•Powers,  but  *tfe  djftappointed  tn  trjeir  ExpeflattOns  : 
•Hovever,  ewifiding  in  their  Ncfmbcri,  and  not.  dif: 
<ouraged  by  their  former  ifl  Succefs1,  they  refolved 
'  «nce  more,  -Upon  their  tf\»n  ilrength,  to  attempt  the 
lubverfion  of  my  Governme'nt. 

To  this  End  they  provided  confidVraljIe  Sums  of 
<Mon«y,  engaged  great  Numbers  of  Officers'  from  i- 
Tnwtd,  fecund  large  Quantities  of  Arms  and  Amaiu- 
nition,  and  thought  themfelvei  fn  fuch  ReadinelV; 
that  had  not  the  Confpitacy  been  tfniely  diCeovere<», 
we  friould,'  without  doubt,  before  now  have  fnn  tho 
•«rfibre  Natiort,  Knd  parUcularly  the  Cfty  of  London^ 
iiivt)1ved  m  BlOod-and  Confufion. 

The  Care  1  bivfe-tJlcen  has,  by  the  Bleffiogof  Godi 
fiitherto  rl/evented1  the  Execu'tiOrf  of  their  ttiytcrous 
Projerts.  The  Troops  have  been  iiicamped  all  this 
Summer  ;  fix  Regiments  (  though  very  neceaaVy  for 
the  Security  of  thkt  -Kfngctom  >  h<ve  t>eeir  6r6u'g>T< 
*y«ftoin  Jftftutii;  The  States  Oe.iera 
m<  itfuiinces  ifwt  they  woulrf  ke^jV  a 
Kcdy  of  Foi«e»  ro  rtzdintfs  to  fan  j:Xo.r 


FIRST   ISSL'E    1'UHI.ISHKl)    1!Y   HKNJAMIX    FRANKLIN 

NEW   EN(^,LAND   COURANT." 
.2*  From  the  original  in  the  British  Museum. 


>  a*?  rnort}  Expences  than  what  > 
Tieceffaiy  tor  tJieir  1'eace  and  Security.     Some  of   t  lu 
Coiilpiiators  have  been  taken  up  and  feciM^  :  h:i- 
dtavows  aie  ufed  for  apprehendi-ig  Other*. 

Jff  LSrit  tnd  'GtHllemt*, 

having  ihttijn  general  laid  before  you ,fh«Sraie 
ofthe  piefent  Confpiracy,  I  mutt  leave  to  your  Ctm- 
fiJeratio.i,  what  is  propel  and  nrceQary  to-  be  done 
for«tie  Quiet  and  Safety  of  the  Kingdom,  i  carmot 
but  believe,  that  the  Hopes  and  Expectations,  of  our 
Enemies  are  very  ill  grounded,  in  flattering"  t&ei'fl- 
felves  that  the  late  Discontents,  (occafioned  by  pri- 
vate Loifes and  misfortu:ies)  however  indifcrjoully 
.  aoj  inahcKJuhy  fomented,  are  turned  into  a  Diuf- 
leriion  and  Spirit  of  Rebeliie-n. 

ilad  ^  fin«<  my  Acceffion  to  the  Throne,  ever  at- 
tempted auy  Invaiion  incur  Eftablifbcd  Religion; 
had  1,  ia  any  one  laftance,  iavadedi  the  Liberty  and 
Property  of  my  Subjeds,  I  fhould  lefs  wonder  at  any 
iii'd  vour»  to  alieoaie  the  Affections  of  my  Peopit, 
and  draw  them  iato  Meafuies  that  can  ead  in  nothing 
but  tbei/own  Deftiuftion  ,  B»«t  to  hope  to  j>erf wade 
a  free  People,  in  full  eajoytaent  of  all  that's  dear  and 
valuable  to  them,  V>  ex«h»nge  Freedom  b>i  Slavery, 
sbeProteltant  Religion  for  Popeiy,  and  to  •Saeii.'ice 
at  6nce  the  Price  of  fp  much  Blood  and  Treafuie  as 
have  ixea  fpeot  inoiif  prefeat  EftabiiAment,  feenis 
In  lufaiuation  which  cannot  be  accounted  for.  But 
Kow«>CI  vain  and -unfiicceCsful  thefe  delper«e.P.ro- 
jeds  may  prove  in  theEnd,  theybave  at  piefent  fo 
far  thedeSied  Effect,  as  to  pteml^Pneafineti  and  fiif- 
fickiK-e  w  tbe  Minds  of  my  People;  which  our  Ene- 
mies improve  to  their  own  Advantage,  by  framing 
Plots:  They  depreciate  all  Property  that  it  vefted  in 
ihePublkk  Funds, and  then  complain  of  the  &w 
-  State  of  Credit;  Th«  Mke  «tt Encreafe  oftheNf- 
trotral  Expences  neceffajy,an<F  thetrdamoar  arTrtfe 
Ruitlien  of  Taxes,  and  <|ije»vour  to  icr.pate  to  my 
Gdvermneot  all  th«  Grievance*,  tke  AUf chiefs jifcd 


I  wife  for  mxhkrg  m<fte  than  To  fee  the  Public* 
Expences  leffened,  awfthe  great  National  Debt,  pat 
Jntol  Method'of  being  '  pidually  redueed  »n«t  aif- 
'  charged,  whh  a  ftiift  Regard  to  Pailiaiuentary  Fiitrr: 
And  i  jno»e  favourtbJo  Opportunity  'could  never 
'  have  been  hoped  for  than  the  State  of  profound  Peace 
tvhich  *e  now  enjoy  with  all  our  Neighbours.  Bus 
PubiickCiedit  winalwijsrangfui'fh  u.idV»thiryA 
liraw  and  AppTehenftonj  of  Fublkk  Danger  ;  and,  as 
the  Enemies  of  out  .Peace  b»ve  bten  able  touring 
this  immediate  Mrfchief  upon  .Osf  nothing  caa  pre- 
veat  them  from  continuing  to  ftrbjeit  ibe  Kitio.n  to 
new  and  coiiftint  Difficulties  and  Diftreffes.  but  tfce 
\Vifdotc,  Zeal  and  vigorous  Retolulion  of  il.is  'Fat- 
' 


Gciithtien  oftbetfiu  , 

I   have  ordered  the  Account  to  be  rmdc  up  .and 


. 

hid  before  you,  of  the  extraordinary  Cbaige  tiiihis 
bien  i.icuiieJ  this  SurauWr,  for  the  Defence  op 
ty  of  ihe  Kiugdom;  a«d  I  have,  been 


opd  Safe 


I  hope  tbe  further  PrOviUous  which  the  TreaTwuUe 

PiacUce  of  ourEncnyes  have  made  necelfaiy  for  our 

.Cominon Safety,  may  beorrferei^Sfuch  FiugaLty, 

la  very  IftfJe  16"  exceed  the  Supplies  ofthe  lift  fear. 

"Mj  Lot/,   and  antltm*, 

1  need  not  tell  you  of  what  infinite  CooceJO  it 

is  (<J  rte  Peace  and  Tranquil ity  of  the    Kingdom, 

"that  this  Pirliaaiaut'  flwuld,  upon  This  Occanoa,  ex- 

"eft  rhenifelves  with  j  more  than.ordinary  Zeal.tud 

'"Vigour-   Aa  enure  Unity  among  all  iliat  lincerely 

•wjili-wcil  to  the  pirfent  EffaMjflirneaf,  is  rtuw  become 

ibfofutely  ueceUary.    Out  Enemies  have  too  lung 

take.iAdvJBtigesfroin  your  Difference* &Djfleotioos: 

.  •  Lei  it  be  knowiitthat  theSpirjt  of  Popery,  wlychbe- 

'  'tiVes  nothing  but  CoofuftoD  to  the  Civil   and.  KeM- 

j|1ocB  Rights  df*  Pfoteftant  Cfcurch  and  Kingdom  ; 


Divine  4ad"Humae 

ay  People  as  to  make  theui  ripe  for  fych  r'  •: 
fatal  Change.  Let  the  World  fee,  tliac  the  geiieat 
dilaafiticn  of  the  N»tion  is  na  invitawontoa  •.<>.• 
reign  Power  to  iavade  us,  qof  Encouragfmerft  to  Do- 
>  aieiUck  Eiierriies  to  kinjOj^i  Civil  War  in  the  Ko«el« 
>of  the  Ki3g4onn.  Ifonr  own  Iai«eft.»;id  Welfare 
calls  upoayou  to  defend  yourfelves;  I  ihall  wholly  . 
rely  upon  the  Divine  ProtedHou,  the  Support  of  iby 
parliament,  and  the  Affeflioos  of  njy  People  j  which 
I  ihall'ei)d«avour  to  prefeive,  by  fteadjly  adhering  to 
theConftitutionin  Cfiur'chandSiate,  by  conteadinz 
to  make  the  Laws  of  my  Realms  the  ruled  Meafuies 
of  all  my  Artiohs. 

L««^p«,  0<3»*.  18.  The  Bumble  Addrefles  of  both 
Houfes  oi"  Parliament,  and  that  of  the  Coavocati- 
6n  of  Cwtejbu/y,  full  of  Loyalty  *nd  Duty,  have' 
been  prefented  to  bis  MajeQy  i  which  Addreflw  his, 
Alajcffy    wai    pleaf«d    10  weeive  veiy  gracioufiy. 
And  '  'tis  not  doubted  but  tfcs  fieady  adheienceof  the 
I»af  liament  and  Clergy,  to  bis  Marty's  Perfon  and  , 
OoTernment,«wjll  put  aaEtwJwthe  Tnytetous  DC-  '• 
figns  of  thofe  who  are  Enemies  to  b»ih. 

London,  Gaoler  ;t.  'Tit  faid  tbtt  a  Schetne  or 
Draught  of  a  Confpjjtacy  was  found  tthotqtft  Con* 
1'ellor  gear's  Papers,  fignei  with  his  own  Hwd, 
whereby  the  Tower  was  10  have  been  firft  feiz'd,  thci 
Palace-of  St^Jaaks's  fee  on  Fire,  and  certain  DefpeS- 
ra'Jots  «o  be  at  hand,  wlio,  under  Pretence  of  .giving 
Alfiftance,  were  to  have  inurderV  Hiv  Maieftv  ;  aud 
ttot  a  very  great  Nuinb«  of  djiTarfcfted  Perfonj  were 
.to  be  affiembled  in  Lincoln'*  Ina-Jfitflds,  t«i  put-»ki 
Town  uajnediattly  into  thr  ere»teft  Confuioa. 
JSo/on,  ftJ-.  ii.  -. 

Laft  Week  the  Reveiend  iAi.  Orum,  Miaitter  of 
the  EpifcopalChoich^njflrfftol,  came-from  thence 
with  a  Petition  from  Tw«lve  of  his  Betters,  (wbo 
are  imprifon'd  for  R«ftf6ig"t»  pay  Rate«>6  the  PreT- 
tyteriao  Minifteref  fciftol  )  to  tbe  Z3eul..  Gove*- 
notw,  who.with  tbt  Advice  of  the  CotrftcfE  promis'il 
Mr.Qrom  toufelib  Iflteieft  fo*  their  ReJief  at  th« 
next.McetingoftheQea«ral  Affembly.theMen'beinj 
impjifgn'dby  VertueOlthe  Lawsof  thePro\ince. 

\Ve:baxe  Advicc.frwn  the  EaAvnd,  that  100 
Men,  under  the  Command  of  Opt.  Hatfmon,  are  gone 
to  N'origi"*oi;k,in.^ieft<rfthe  Indians,  atd  170  to 
PL-inbfeot.  *»dcr  CoMttaffli  of  Col  .Weftbiook.  1j» 
f-axl  wothtf  Piny  are  to  inarch  to  Pejepfcotv 

Yeftetday  Jterning  about  6  of  Clo«k,  a  Fire 
broke  om  at  Mr.  Biodi'i  Work-houfe  ia  Cornhill 
.which  bum  acpofideraiUePau  of  the  Roof  before 
it  was  extinguifhU  • 

C»Som  Jfrufe,  fofon,    Emred  Inward*. 

Daniel  Jackfon  frout  New-Hawpfliue,  JoDathw 
Chafe  from  Nevopo.t,  John  Daskiot  ftouj  Nodh 
Carolina,  JofljuaBenjamia  for  Sou  thCawHrta,  Charier 
WhitfieWfrom  Marriaeco,  joho<Baantt,.Ship  Sarah 
fiom  London.' 

CltartiOnt.     Nor-. 

G»/B-.ir^  Bnrt.    Amos   Bfeed  fsi.  N«w   Lon- 
don,   Wflliim    Flekher    for     Marytakk/-  James  - 
BMn  for  Annapolis  Royal,  Jobn  Trobijjgafiwaorth 
Carolina,  J.  1  ompey  So:  Aatigua,  jacobl-'inhorne  for 
London.  . 


THc  beft  r.t-v  1' 
JL-  fold  by  Mr.  Williun  Clark   li\  WafcJwnrt  Row, 

Twenty  fclght  i>hUlinss  per  Hir.dttd. 

A  Servant  Boys  Time  for  4  Yeaia  co.  he  difpoTtd  of.  ,  He 
f\  is  about  iC  Yeats  of  Aae,  jad  cjn  kct  p  Accoto  w«. 
Enquire  «  tiie  Blue  "Ball  In  Union  Sheet,  arti  thow  M- 

*|*  Tin  Pjfir  /,aw»j  net  aitbfi  S'""'1  "*  -*- 
•*tfta*ct  mTofM  A»i  CatfHitr,  <u  la  r<rnj>«  a  far  grc;- 
tft  ttltnlm  of  tint  toeefnuni,  thinifxre  ;.'  cf  ike 
ctfic,  fuHick  Paftti  ;  avJ  it  being  teJUtt^Bm^eatfstlj 
ttaJ  ty  .-,  Tsaft  Numhr  ofSorraaeri,  vhe  to  Ho»  take  ,t^ 
>ix,tl,t  P,,tl:f,tr  tlaski  ptopt,  to  five  tint  fullictt  Ultfet 
far  tie  Ia«iu,3jt*t,.i  of  tboft  trb,  would  ij^i'AJvcr. 
Ufeawnis  niftned  in  tie  pntliek  Print,,  wi/W^i^  wi.t» 
' 


;. Printed  and  fold  by   EEHMMIN  FXANKMN  in  Qijeen  Street,  .n'hcre 
Ad?ertil'em«0ii  ate  taken  in.' 


FIRST   ISSUE  PUBLISHED   BY   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN   OF 
NEW  ENGLAND  COURANT." 


THE 


PRINTER   AND   PUBLISHER 

discredit  on  the  civil  authorities.  For  this  "  Scandalous 
Libel  "  James  Franklin  was,  by  order  of  the  council, 
taken  into  custody,  publicly  censured,  and  imprisoned 
for  four  weeks.  Moreover,  an  attempt  was  made  to 
pass  a  resolve  that  "  no  such  Weekly  Paper  be  hereafter 
Printed  or  Published  without  the  same  being  first  pe- 
rused and  allowed  by  the  Secretary,"  but  this  was  re- 
jected as  too  extreme. 

The  reproof  and  punishment  were  ineffectual,  and 
the  authorities  complained  that  the  "  Courant "  con- 
tinued "  boldly  reflecting  on  His  Majesty's  Government 
and  on  the  Administration  of  it  in  this  Province,  the 
Ministry,  Churches  and  College ;  and  it  very  often 
contains  Paragraphs  that  tend  to  fill  the  Readers  minds 
with  vanity,  to  the  Dishonor  of  God,  and  disservice  of 
Good  Men."  Finally,  a  particular  issue  of  the  journal 
had  so  strong  a  "Tendency"  to  "Mock  Religion  and 
bring  it  into  Contempt,"  and  so  "  profanely  abused  " 
the  Bible,  and  so  "  injuriously  reflected  on  the  Rever- 
end and  Faithful  Ministers  of  the  Gospel,  and  His 
Majesty's  Government,"  that  James  Franklin  was 
"strictly  forbidden"  to  "Print  or  Publish"  the  "Cou- 
rant," or  "any  Pamphlet  or  Paper  of  like. Nature,  ex- 
cept it  be  first  supervised  by  the  Secretary  of  this 
Province." 

This  inhibition  brought  the  prentice,  whose  share  at 
first  had  been  "  to  carry  the  papers  thro'  the  street  to 
the  customers,"  more  to  the  fore.  In  the  trial  of  James 
Franklin,  Benjamin  was  "  taken  up  and  examin'd  before 
the  Council;  but,  tho'  I  did  not  give  them  any  satis- 
faction, they  content'd  themselves  with  admonishing 

183 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

me,  and  dismissed  me,  considering  me,  perhaps,  as  an 
apprentice  who  was  bound  to  keep  his  master's  secrets." 
Upon  his  brother's  imprisonment,  Franklin,  though  but 
sixteen,  assumed  the  management  of  the  paper,  and 
when  the  order  was  issued  that  James  Franklin  should 
no  longer  print  the  "  Courant " 

"  There  was  a  consultation  held  in  our  printing-house  among 
his  friends,  what  he  should  do  in  this  case.  Some  proposed 
to  evade  the  order  by  changing  the  name  of  the  paper;  but 
my  brother,  seeing  inconveniences  in  that,  it  was  finally  con- 
cluded on  as  a  better  way,  to  let  it  be  printed  for  the  future 
under  the  name  of  Benjamin  Franklin  ;  and  to  avoid  the  cen- 
sure of  the  Assembly,  that  might  fall  on  him  as  still  printing 
it  by  his  apprentice,  the  contrivance  was  that  my  old  indenture 
should  be  return'd  to  me,  with  a  full  discharge  on  the  back  of 
it,  to  be  shown  on  occasion,  but  to  secure  to  him  the  benefit 
of  my  service,  I  was  to  sign  new  indentures  for  the  remainder 
of  the  term,  which  were  to  be  kept  private.  A  very  flimsy 
scheme  it  was ;  however,  it  was  immediately  executed,  and 
the  paper  went  on  accordingly,  under  my  name  for  several 
months." 

United  as  the  brothers  might  be  in  their  fight  with 
church  and  state,  there  was  serious  disagreement  be- 
tween them,  and 

"At  length,  a  fresh  difference  arising  between  my  brother 
and  me,  I  took  upon  me  to  assert  my  freedom,  presuming 
that  he  would  not  venture  to  produce  the  new  indentures. 
It  was  not  fair  iu  me  to  take  this  advantage,  and  this  I  there- 
fore reckon  one  of  the  first  errata  of  my  life ;  but  the  unfair- 
ness of  it  weighed  little  with  me,  when  under  the  impressions 
of  resentment  for  the  blows  his  passion  too  often  urged  him 
to  bestow  upon  me,  though  he  was  otherwise  not  an  ill-natur'd 
man :  perhaps  I  was  too  saucy  and  provoking.  When  he 
found  I  would  leave  him,  he  took  care  to  prevent  my  getting 
employment  in  any  other  printing-house  of  the  town,  by  going 

-84 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

round  and  speaking  to  every  master,  who  accordingly  refus'd 
to  give  me  work." 

Failing  to  secure  employment  in  Boston,  Franklin 
became  the  runaway  prentice  so  frequently  advertised 
for  at  that  time.  Sneaking  on  board  a  sloop,  "  in  three 
days  I  found  myself  in  New  York,  near  300  miles  from 
home,  a  boy  of  but  17,  without  the  least  recommenda- 
tion to,  or  knowledge  of  any  person  in  the  place,  and 
with  very  little  money  in  my  pocket."  However,  "  At 
the  workingman's  house  hunger  looks  in,  but  does  not 
enter,"  and  "  having  a  trade,  and  supposing  myself  a 
pretty  good  workman,  I  offer'd  my  services  to  the 
printer  in  the  place,  old  Mr.  William  Bradford."  From 
him  he  obtained  no  direct  aid,  but  he  was  told  of  a 
possible  place  in  Philadelphia,  and  at  once  set  out  for 
that  city.  Here  he  obtained  a  job  from  Samuel  Keimer, 
one  of  the  two  printers  of  the  place,  and  worked  with 
him  till  a  more  ambitious  opening  offered. 

By  chance  a  letter  of  the  lad  was  shown  to  the  gov- 
ernor of  Pennsylvania,  Sir  William  Keith.  From  it  he 
inferred  that  Franklin  was  "  a  young  man  of  promising 
parts,  and  therefore  should  be  encouraged,"  for  the 
"  printers  at  Philadelphia  were  wretched  ones."  He 
advised,  therefore,  that  the  newcomer  should  start  in 
business  on  his  own  account,  "  making  no  doubt  I 
should  succeed,"  and  hinted  that  "  he  would  procure 
me  the  public  business,  and  do  me  every  other  service 
in  his  power."  Keith  came  to  the  printing-office  to 
see  the  young  journeyman,  which  made  his  master 
stare  "  like  a  pig  poison'd,"  and  took  him  off  to  a 
tavern,  where  "  over  the  Madeira  he  propos'd  my  set- 

,85 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


ting  up  my  business,"  and  was  so  eager  to  bring  it  to 
pass  that  he  wrote  a  letter  to  Josiah  Franklin,  recom- 
mending him  to  advance  his  son  the  necessary  money. 


GOVERNOR    KEITH. 
From  the  portrait  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  father,  however,  with  more  prudence,  or  possibly 
from  lack  of  the  means,  disapproved  of  the  scheme. 

Sir  William,  despite  this  damper,  still  stuck   to  his 
suggestion,  and   offered  to  loan   Franklin   the   needed 

186 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

funds.  "  Give  me  an  inventory  of  the  things  necessary 
to  be  had  from  England,"  he  told  the  young  fellow, 
"and  I  will  send  for  them."  When  made  out  it 
amounted  to  about  one  hundred  pounds  sterling,  and, 
"at  the  governor's  suggestion,"  it  was  decided  that 
Franklin  should  go  to  London  to  make  the  purchase, 
because  of  the  advantage  of  "  my  being  on  the  spot  .  .  . 
to  chuse  the  types  and  see  that  everything  was  good  of 
the  kind." 

Never  dreaming  of  bad  faith,  Franklin  got  him  aboard 
ship,  and  on  Christmas  eve  of  1 724  reached  London. 
It  proved  a  sorry  holiday  time  to  him,  for  here  it  was 
that  he  first  learned  that  he  had  been  deceived  with 
false  promises  and  hopes,  and  that  the  governor's  name 
would  not  have  procured  him  the  necessary  credit  to 
purchase  the  outfit,  even  had  he  fulfilled  his  word. 
It  was  a  bitter  disappointment  to  the  lad,  whom  Poor 
Richard  had  not  yet  taught  that  "  Experience  keeps  a 
dear  school,  but  fools  will  learn  at  no  other." 

Once  again  Franklin  had  proof  of  the  value  of  a 
trade,  for  "  I  immediately  got  into  work  at  Palmers, 
then  a  famous  printing-house  in  Bartholomew  Close, 
and  here  I  continu'd  near  a  year,"  lodging  meantime  in 
"  Little  Britain  at  three  shillings  and  sixpence  a  week." 
It  was  in  this  establishment  that  Franklin  set  up  and 
printed  for  himself  his  "wicked  tract,"  and  however 
much  he  may  have  later  thought  it  "an  erratum,"  the 
pamphlet  is  typographically  anything  but  that,  and  as 
a  piece  of  book-making  shows  him  already  a  most  ad- 
mirable "  brother  of  the  type." 

Leaving  Palmer's,  in  the  hope  of  bettering  himself, 

187 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Franklin  went  to  "  Watts's,  near  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields, 
a  still  greater  printing-house,"  and  "  here  I  continued 
all  the  rest  of  my  stay  in  London."  At  first  "  I  took 
to  working  at  press,  imagining  I  felt  a  want  of  bodily- 
exercise  I  had  been  us'd  to  in  America,  where  press 
work  is  mixed  with  composing." 

"  Watts,  after  some  weeks,  desiring  to  have  me  in  the  com- 
posing-room, I  left  the  pressmen  ;  a  new  bien  venu  or  sum  for 
drink,  being  five  shillings,  was  demanded  of  me  by  the  com- 
positors. I  thought  it  an  imposition,  as  I  had  paid  below; 
the  master  thought  so  too,  and  forbad  my  paying  it.  I  stood 
out  two  or  three  weeks,  was  accordingly  considered  as  an 
excommunicate,  and  had  so  many  little  pieces  of  private 
mischief  done  me,  by  mixing  my  sorts,  transposing  my  pages, 
breaking  my  matter,  etc.,  etc.,  if  I  were  ever  so  little  out  of 
the  room,  and  all  ascribed  to  the  chappel  ghost,  which  they 
said  ever  haunted  those  not  regularly  admitted,  that,  notwith- 
standing .the  master's  protection,  I  found  myself  oblig'd  to 
comply  and  pay  the  money,  convinc'd  of  the  folly  of  being  on 
ill  terms  with  those  one  is  to  live  with  continually. 

"  I  was  now  on  a  fair  footing  with  them,  and  soon  acquir'd 
considerable  influence.  I  propos'd  some  reasonable  alterations 
in  their  chappel  laws,  and  carried  them  against  all  opposition. 
.  .  .  My  constant  attendance  (I  never  making  a  St.  Monday) 
recommended  me  to  the  master;  and  my  uncommon  quick- 
ness at  composing  occasioned  my  being  put  upon  all  work  of 
dispatch,  which  was  generally  better  paid.  So  I  went  on  now 
very  agreeably." 

At  the  end  of  eighteen  months  a  good  business 
offer  from  a  Philadelphia  merchant  who  had  come  to 
London  to  purchase  goods  tempted  Franklin  into  leav- 
ing the  printing-office  and  England,  and  in  less  than 
two  years  from  the  time  he  had  sailed  he  once  more 
landed  at  Philadelphia.  Only  three  months  later  his 
employer  sickened  and  died,  and  for  a  third  time  he 

188 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

was  without  a  livelihood.  But  his  London  training  had 
taught  him  much  of  his  trade,  and  to  that  extent  he  was 
the  richer. 

In   throwing   up   his  job   at   Watts's   establishment, 


PRESS   AT  WHICH   FRANKLIN    WORKED   IN   WATTS'S 
PRINTING-OFFICE,    LONDON,    1725. 

It  is  owned  by  Mrs.  Felicia  M.  Tucker  of  New  York,  and  is  in 
the  custody  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  Washington. 


Franklin  "  took  leave  of  printing,  as  I  supposed  for 
ever."  Acting  on  this  conclusion,  "  I  tried  for  farther 
employment  as  a  merchant's  clerk."  Not  succeeding, 

189 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Keimer's  lack  of  a  skilled  workman  and  Franklin's  lack 
of  work  brought  the  two  together.  His  old  employer 
"  tempted  me,  with  an  offer  of  large  wages  by  the  year, 
to  come  and  take  his  printing-house,  that  he  might 
better  attend  to  his  stationer's  shop,"  and  Franklin 
"  clos'd  again  "  with  him. 

Franklin  found  in  Keimer's  employ  a  number  of 
green  hands  whom  "  he  had  agreed  with  at  extream 
low  wages  per  week,  to  be  rais'd  a  shilling  every  three 
months,  as  they  would  deserve  by  improving  in  their 
business ;  and  the  expectation  of  these  high  wages,  to 
come  on  hereafter,  was  what  he  had  drawn  them  in  with." 

"  I  soon  perceiv'd  that  the  intention  of  engaging  me  at 
wages  so  much  higher  than  he  had  been  us'd  to  give,  was,  to 
have  these  raw,  cheap  hands  form'd  thro'  me  ;  and,  as  soon  as 
I  had  instructed  them,  then  they  being  all  articled  to  him,  he 
should  be  able  to  do  without  me.  I  went  on,  however,  very 
cheerfully,  put  his  printing-house  in  order,  which  had  been  in 
great  confusion,  and  brought  his  hands  by  degrees  to  mind 
their  business  and  to  do  it  better.  .  .  . 

"Our  printing-house  often  wanted  sorts,  and  there  was  no 
letter-founder  in  America;  I  had  seen  types  cast  at  James's 
in  London,  but  without  much  attention  to  the  manner ;  how- 
ever, I  now  contrived  a  mould,  made  use  of  the  letters  we  had 
as  puncheons,  struck  the  matrices  in  lead,  and  thus  supply'd 
in  a  pretty  tolerable  way  all  deficiencies.  I  also  engrav'd 
several  things  on  occasion  ;  I  made  the  ink  ;  I  was  warehouse- 
man, and  everything,  and,  in  short,  quite  a  factotum. 

"  But,  however  serviceable  I  might  be,  I  found  that  my  ser- 
vices became  every  day  of  less  importance,  as  the  other  hands 
improv'd  in  the  business ;  and,  when  Keimer  paid  my  second 
quarter's  wages,  he  let  me  know  that  he  felt  them  too  heavy, 
and  thought  I  should  make  an  abatement.  He  grew  by 
degrees  less  civil,  put  on  more  of  the  master,  frequently  found 
fault,  was  captious,  and  seem'd  ready  for  an  out-breaking.  I 
went  on,  nevertheless,  with  a  good  deal  of  patience,  thinking 

190 


PRINTER    AND    PUBLISHER 


^ 


DISSOLUTION  OF  THE   FIRM   OF  B.    FRANKLIN  AND   H.    MEREDITH. 
From  the  original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

that  his  encumber' d  circumstances  were  partly  the  cause.  At 
length  a  trifle  snapt  our  connections ;  for,  a  great  noise  hap- 
pening near  the  court-house,  I  put  my  head  out  of  the  window 

191 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

to  see  what  was  the  matter.  Keimer,  being  in  the  street, 
look'd  up  and  saw  me,  calPd  out  to  me  in  a  loud  voice  and 
angry  tone  to  mind  my  business,  adding  some  reproachful 
words,  that  nettled  me  the  more  for  their  publicity,  all  the 
neighbors  who  were  looking  out  on  the  same  occasion,  being 
witnesses  how  I  was  treated.  He  came  up  immediately  into 
the  printing-house,  continu'd  the  quarrel,  high  words  pass'd  on 
both  sides,  he  gave  me  the  quarter's  warning  we  had  stipulated, 
expressing  a  wish  that  he  had  not  been  oblig'd  to  so  long  a 
warning.  I  told  him  that  his  wish  was  unnecessary,  for  I 
would  leave  him  that  instant ;  and  so,  taking  my  hat,  walk'd 
out  of  doors." 

One  of  Keimer's  workmen,  Hugh  Meredith,  came  to 
Franklin  in  the  evening  and  suggested  that  when  his 
"time  was  out"  they  should  form  a  partnership,  his 
father  to  advance  the  money  needed  to  obtain  the 
press  and  types.  "  The  proposal  was  agreeable,  and  I 
consented." 

"  I  gave  an  inventory  to  the  father,"  Franklin  continues, 
'"'  who  carry'd  it  to  a  merchant ;  the  things  were  sent  for,  the 
secret  was  to  be  kept  till  they  should  arrive,  and  in  the  mean 
time  I  was  to  get  work,  if  I  could,  at  the  other  printing-house. 
But  I  found  no  vacancy  there,  and  so  remain'd  idle  a  few  days, 
when  Keimer,  on  a  prospect  of  being  employ'd  to  print  some 
paper  money  in  New  Jersey,  which  would  require  cuts  and 
various  types  that  I  only  could  supply,  and  apprehending 
Bradford  might  engage  me  and  get  the  jobb  from  him,  sent 
me  a  very  civil  message,  that  old  friends  should  not  part  for 
a  few  words,  the  effect  of  sudden  passion,  and  wishing  me  to 
return.  Meredith  persuaded  me  to  comply,  as  it  would  give 
more  opportunity  for  his  improvement  under  my  daily  instruc- 
tion ;  so  I  return'd,  and  we  went  on  more  smoothly  than  for 
some  time  before.  The  New  Jersey  jobb  was  obtain'cl,  I 
contriv'd  a  copper-plate  press  for  it,  the  first  that  had  been 
seen  in  the  country ;  I  cut  several  ornaments  and  checks  for 
the  bills.  We  went  together  to  Burlington,  where  I  exe- 

192 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

cuted  the  whole  to  satisfaction ;  and  he  received  so  large  a 
sum  for  the  work  as  to  be  enabled  thereby  to  keep  his  head 
much  longer  above  water." 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1728  that  the  firm  of  "  B. 
Franklin  and  H.  Meredith  "  set  up  their  "  New  Print- 
ing-Orfice  near  the  Market,"  and 

"  We  had  scarce  opened  our  letters  and  put  our  press  in  order, 
before  George  House,  an  acquaintance  of  mine,  brought  a 
countryman  to  us,  whom  he  had  met  in  the  street  inquiring 
for  a  printer.  All  our  cash  was  now  expended  in  the  variety 
of  particulars  we  had  been  obliged  to  procure,  and  this  coun- 
tryman's five  shillings,  being  our  first-fruits,  and  coming  so 
seasonably,  gave  me  more  pleasure  than  any  crown  I  have 
since  earned  ;  and  the  gratitude  I  felt  toward  House  has  made 
me  often  more  ready  than  perhaps  I  should  otherwise  have 
been  to  assist  young  beginners." 

Another  friend  helped  them  by  procuring 

"  From  the  Quakers  the  printing  forty  sheets  of  their  history, 
the  rest  being  to  be  done  by  Keimer ;  and  upon  this  we  work'd 
exceedingly  hard,  for  the  price  was  low.  It  was  a  folio,  pro 
patria  size,  in  pica,  with  long  primer  notes.  I  compos'd  of 
it  a  sheet  a  day,  and  Meredith  worked  it  off  at  press ;  it  was 
often  eleven  at  night,  and  sometimes  later,  before  I  had  fin- 
ished my  distribution  for  the  next  day's  work,  for  the  little 
jobbs  sent  in  by  our  other  friends  now  and  then  put  us  back. 
But  so  determin'd  I  was  to  continue  doing  a  sheet  a  day  of 
the  folio,  that  one  night,  when,  having  impos'd  my  forms,  I 
thought  my  day's  work  over,  one  of  them  by  accident  was 
broken,  and  two  pages  reduced  to  pi,  I  immediately  distrib- 
uted and  compos'd  it  over  again  before  I  went  to  bed." 

Franklin  was  not  the  kind  of  man  to  depend  on  his 
friends  for  work,  or  even  to  sit  still  and  let  work  come 
to  him.  The  public  printing,  always  a  profitable  mat- 

193 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


ter,   was   in   the   hands   of   Andrew   Bradford,    and    in 
December,   1728,  he  printed  the  usual  "Speech  of  the 


••  .la! 

i^||v 

THE 

PSALMS 

OP 

D  A  V  I  D, 

Imitated  in  die  Language  of  the 

NEW  TESTAMENT, 

And  apply  *d  to  the 

Chiriftian  State  and  Worfliip. 

By   /.  iv  A  r  r  s. 

The  SEVENTH  EDITION. 

Luke  xxiv.  44.  Miking*  muJlbefHlflltdvjbitb 
were  written  in  —  the  Piaims  cmttrnmg  me. 
Hebr.  xi-S  V--  David,  Samuel,  6°  it*  Prof  bets. 
Ver.  4Q.  —  tfbat  tbey  ivitlent  uifieuU  rut  i* 
mack  perftS.                                           »'•,. 

P  HILA&^t'  />  H.tA*  " 

Print  rdfo  &  V:  «*<*  HjM^ThdmMGod- 

frcy^  M:d  &&**'&*&*$;  n*}> 

' 

1ITLE-PAGE  OF   FIRST    ISSUE   OF   FRANKLIN'S   I'RKSS. 
In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

Governor"  at  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly,  "in  a 
coarse,  blundering  manner;  we  reprinted  it  elegantly 
and  correctly  and  sent  one  to  every  member.  They 

194 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

were  sensible  of  the  difference :  it  strengthened  the 
hands  of  our  friends  in  the  House,  and  they  voted  us 
their  printers  for  the  year  ensuing."  A  little  later,  for 
a  timely  pamphlet  of  his  own  writing,  on  a  projected 
issue  of  paper  money,  his  friends  in  the  Assembly 
"  thought  fit  to  reward  me  by  employing  me  in  printing 
the  money,  a  very  profitable  jobb  and  a  great  help  to 
me."  In  1732  influence  secured  him  the  printing  of 
an  issue  of  paper  money  for  Delaware,  "  another  profit- 
able jobb,"  as  well  as  of  the  "  laws  and  votes  of  that 
government,  which  continu'd  in  my  hands  as  long  as  I 
follow'd  the  business."  So,  too,  he  obtained  the  pub- 
lic printing  of  New  Jersey. 

The  first  book  published  by  the  young  firm  was  an 
impression  of  Watts's  "  Psalms  of  David,"  a  writer  for 
whom  Franklin  had  the  greatest  admiration,  so  much, 
in  fact,  that  in  his  last  hours  "  he  repeated  several  of 
Watts  Lyric  Poems  and  discanted  upon  their  sublimity." 
Apparently  the  people  of  Pennsylvania  did  not  share 
this  liking,  for  when  Franklin  some  time  after  was 
criticized  for  printing  a  particular  broadside,  in  his  de- 
fense he  urged  that  if  printers  occasionally  "  put  forth 
vicious  and  silly  things  not  worth  reading,  they  did  so, 
not  because  they  liked  such  things  themselves,  but  be- 
cause the  people  were  so  viciously  educated  that  good 
things  were  not  encouraged."  For  instance,  an  "  im- 
pression of  the  Psalms  of  David  had  been  upon  my 
shelves  for  above  two  years,"  yet  he  had  "known  a 
large  impression  of  Robin  Hood's  Songs  to  go  off  in  a 
twelvemonth." 

Even  before  Franklin  had  printed  this  first  volume, 

195 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

an  inception  of  far  more  importance  was  in  his  thoughts, 
being  a  project  to  start  a  newspaper — a  germ,  probably, 
of  his  experience  with  "  The  New  England  Courant." 
But  he  had  not  yet  learned  from  Poor  Richard  that 
"Three  can  keep  a  secret  if  two  are  dead,"  and  so  he 
confided  his  scheme,  before  it  was  well  matured,  to  one 
of  his  former  fellow-workmen,  George  Webb.  By  this 
means  Keimer  heard  of  the  project,  "  immediately,  to 
be  beforehand  with  me,  published  proposals  for  printing 
one  himself,"  and  late  in  1728  issued  the  first  number 
of  "  The  Universal  Instructor  in  all  Arts  and  Sciences, 
or,  The  Pennsylvania  Gazette."  Despite  its  formidable 
title,  its  publisher  claimed  that  it  had  attained  the  gi- 
gantic circulation  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  copies  by 
its  thirteenth  issue,  which  meant  a  profit  to  him  of  at 
least  sixty  pounds  a  year.  But  already  Franklin's  old 
master  was  feeling  the  competition  of  the  new  firm,  and 
when  No.  27  of  the  paper  was  due  there  was  a  week's 
delay  in  its  publication,  which,  Mr.  Keimer  presently 
explained  to  the  public,  was  occasioned  by  the  fact  that 
he  had  been  "  awak'd  when  fast  asleep  in  Bed,  about 
Eleven  at  Night,  over-tir'd  with  the  Labour  of  the 
Day,  and  taken  away  from  my  Dwelling,  by  a  Writ 
and  Summons,  it  being  basely  and  confidently  given 
out,  that  I  was  that  very  Night  about  to  run  away,  tho' 
there  was  not  the  least  Colour  or  Ground  for  such  a 
vile  Report."  Clearly  this  was  not  altogether  a  novel 
experience,  for  he  styles  himself  "  the  Shuttlecock  of 
Fortune  .  .  .  the  very  But  for  Villany  to  shoot  at,  or 
the  continued  Mark  for  Slander  and  her  Imps  to  spit 
their  Venom  upon,"  and  marvels  that  "  a  Person  of 

196 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

strict  Sincerity,  refin'd  Justice,  and  universal  Love  to 
the  whole  Creation,  should  for  a  Series  of  near  twenty 
Years,  be  the  constant  But  of  Slander,  as  to  be  three 
Times  ruin'd  as  a  Master- Printer,  to  be  Nine  Times  in 
Prison,  one  of  which  was  Six  Years  together,  and  often 
reduc'd  to  the  most  wretched  Circumstances,  hunted 
as  a  Partridge  upon  the  Mountains,  and  persecuted  with 
the  most  abominable  Lies  the  Devil  himself  could  in- 
vent, or  Malice  utter." 

Released  by  the  forbearance  of  his  creditors,  Keimer 
struggled  along  with  his  paper  until  No.  39  was  reached, 
when  he  sold  it  to  Franklin  and  Meredith  for  a  small 
price,  having  then  only  ninety  subscribers.  Under  the 
new  management  the  absurd  title  was  curtailed  to  "  The 
Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  and  the  paper  otherwise  im- 
proved. With  the  fourth  issue  Franklin  announced 
that  "  Instead  of  Publishing  a  Whole  Sheet  once  a 
Week,  as  the  first  Undertaker  engag'd  to  do  in  his  Pro- 
posals, we  shall  continue  to  publish  a  Half  Sheet  twice 
a  Week,  which  amounts  to  the  same  Thing;  only  it  is 
easier  to  us,  and  we  think  it  will  be  more  acceptable  to 
our  Readers,  inasmuch  as  their  Entertainment  will  by 
this  Means  become  more  frequent."  This  made  it  the 
first  semi-weekly  ever  issued  in  America;  but  the 
printers  were  in  advance  of  their  public,  and  after  issu- 
ing a  few  numbers  they  changed  it  back  to  a  weekly. 

Franklin's  editorial  share  in  the  paper  is  described 
elsewhere,  but  one  phase  is  more  properly  mentioned  in 
considering  him  as  a  printer.  Every  one  who  has  had 
to  do  with  publishing  in  any  shape  has  learned,  as  Car- 
tagena remarked,  that  "  Unto  those  Three  Things  which 

I97 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

the  Ancients  held  impossible,  there  should    be   added 
this  Fourth,  to  find  a  Book  Printed  without  erratas  "  ; 


THE 


Numb.  XL. 


Pennfylvania  GAZETTE. 

Containing  the  freficft  Advices  Foreign  and  Dome  flick. 

From  Thurfiky,  September  ij.   to  Thurl'diy,  O&obcr  s.     17:9. 


H  E  Fennftlvania  Gazette  hint  «oa>  In 
tt  tarry"  J  ot  tj  otter  thuJl,  the  Reader 
may  expeafeme  Account  cftie  Method  set 
dtfittt  to  proceed  in. 

Vfon  a  Cm  c/  Chambers'/  Sre.tt  Diffiouariet, 
from  iffbenct  were  taken  tie  Mjlerialt  of  the 
Univer&I  Inftrador  in  all  Arts  and  Sciences, 
vticb  ttfaally  madt  lie  F,rft  Vsrt  cf  this  Vjfcr, 
•ait  fud  that  teffjei  their  ceauiaiu;  ajujTbmgi 


There  Are  nutty  ttfci  ba-je  lelif  ifeCrcJ  t  *•  ft 
yc.1  \,xs-l>J!,tr  „,  K-nnl\lvsnu;  '  .;,.  l^-J 
thcfe  Gcullemtn  •xbo  arc  able,  will  oiKril  /.'.' 
•xanti  the  makjuf  Ttisfacb.  ft'c  JJ<  -  lfi!jt 
keeauli  1'e  jn  Jnllr  /;;;'//•/£,  lijt  to  f  inlilt 
fftd  Nnu-Ttftr  «  uitfi  tafj  ju  I'.J-n  ih 
as  m*ej  People  imapue  it  In  'lit.  '. 


vife  in  tto/e  Bctis  autaiul  Rtfereuces  from 
-.  Things  under  one  Ijtter  cf  ti-e  .Jlpbata  to  tbofe 
under  another,  vbicli  reljte  ti  lie  fjmt  Suljetl, 

IttTetJkeTin  '//'-; ''r^T''^'  • 

Turs  I!:J!M:  ;  <n  i  Hat -.1  it  iiie'..,  . 
defrt  ,ia^L,Mr  tttmfth*,  vat  ouy  fjrtM* 
><  or  Science,  'j.-,:,.'J  ;.'./.(.'.  i.r.-c  tit  a.*;.,  i:- 
firc  them  in  a  mucL  lift  Time,  a-«  Mint  cir 
RtaJers  mil  not  Mat  fleet  a  MetM  efcmtmu- 
fjic-irhig  Kamltfat  /•>  Is  a  prcper  One.  . 

Ho-jintr,  tti,'  m  do  n-.t  intta.i  to  emdSnu  !te 
fMicatwn  cf  tlcofe  Dhluiuria  in  ,t  rctflar 
jUfbtetitall&tL  I,  „  but  i.ibcKibeeaJone; 


ofaeb  of  the  Carious,  vibe  ne-.-er  hid  and  CJH- 


a,  may 


CutMry,  js  may  contribute  ei:h 
tmemttt  of  air  pnfmt  Afjmifii 
icorj,  the  Iin-calim  of  sea  One, 
from  Time  in  T,,,.c  ;;  uanununai 

Coi.fr -fence. 

Jt  to  the  Religious  Courtfl: 
•Xlicb  tjs  l-eeii  rf  i.'  '        .    . 
'Paper sn  tit  RfjJtr 
•xtcle  Beck    will  tntstlf  m  n  i 
frittle,!  a*d  toauj  up  it  itf,!f;   « 


the  bit  ^!i•^ig;  Cent 


Houi'c  of  Rq>'rclciit.i 


lic 


FRANKLIN'S  FIRST  ISSUE  OF  "PENNSYLVANIA  GAZETTE." 

From  the  original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

but  few  have  learned  to  turn  them  to  so  good  an  account 
as  Franklin,  and  his  explanations  and  apologies  are 
among  the  most  entertaining  contributions  to  the 

198 


PRINTER    AND    PUBLISHER 

paper.  In  one  case  his  "papers  were  wrought  off " 
with  a  bad  transposition.  But  "  the  judicious  Reader 
will  easily  distinguish  accidental  Errors  from  the  Blun- 
ders of  Ignorance,  and  more  readily  excuse  the  former 
which  sometimes  happen  unavoidably."  On  another 
occasion,  when  Franklin  had  gone  to  New  Jersey  to 
print  the  paper  currency  of  the  colony,  he  availed 
himself  of  the  popular  liking  for  more  money  by  the 
announcement  that  "  The  Printer  hopes  the  irregular 
Publication  of  this  Paper  will  be  excused  a  few  times 
by  his  Town  Readers,  on  consideration  of  his  being  at 
Burlington  with  the  press,  labouring  for  the  publick 
Good,  to  make  Money  more  plentiful."  Again,  he 
addresses  a  letter  to  himself  under  a  feigned  name, 
with  the  motto,  "  Printerum  est  errare  " : 

"  SIR,  As  your  last  Paper  was  reading  in  some  Company 
where  I  was  present,  these  Words  were  taken  Notice  of  in  the 
Article  concerning  Governor  Belcher,  (After  which  his  Excel- 
lency, with  the  Gentlemen  trading  to  New  England,  died  ele- 
gantly at  Pontack's.)  The  Word  died  should  doubtless  have 
been  dined,  Pontack's  being  a  noted  Tavern  and  Eating-house 
in  London  for  Gentlemen  of  Condition  ;  but  this  Omission  of 
the  Letter  (n)  in  that  Word,  gave  us  as  much  Entertainment  as 
any  Part  of  your  Paper.  One  took  the  Opportunity  of  telling 
us,  that  in  a  certain  Edition  of  the  Bible,  the  Printer  had, 
where  David  says  I  am  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made, 
omitted  the  Letter  (e)  in  the  last  Word,  so  that  it  was,  I  am 
fearfully  and  wonderfully  mad ;  which  occasion'd  an  ignorant 
Preacher,  who  took  that  Text,  to  harangue  his  Audience  for 
half  an  hour  on  the  Subject  of  Spiritual  Madness.  Another 
related  to  us,  that  when  the  Company  of  Stationers  in  England 
had  the  Printing  of  the  Bible  in  their  Hands,  the  Word  (not) 
was  left  out  in  the  Seventh  Commandment,  and  the  whole 
Edition  was  printed  off  with  Thou  shalt  commit  Adultery, 
instead  of  Thou  shalt  not,  &c.  This  material  Erratum  induc'd 

199 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

the  Crown  to  take  the  Patent  from  them  which  is  now  held 
by  the  King's  Printer.  The  Spectator's  Remark  upon  this 
Story  is,  that  he  doubts  many  of  our  modern  Gentlemen  have 
this  faulty  Edition  by  'em,  and  are  not  made  sensible  of  the 
Mistake.  A  Third  Person  in  the  Company  acquainted  us  with 
an  unlucky  Fault  that  went  through  a  whole  Impression  of 
Common-Prayer-Books ;  in  the  Funeral  Service,  where  these 
Words  are,  We  shall  all  be  changed  in  a  moment,  in  the  twin- 
kling of  an  Eye,  &c.,  the  Printer  had  omitted  the  (c)  in  changed, 
and  it  read  thus,  We  shall  all  be  hanged,  &c.  And  lastly,  a 
Mistake  of  your  Brother  News-Printer  was  mentioned,  in  The 
Speech  of  James  Prouse  written  the  Night  before  he  was  to 
have  been  executed,  instead  of  I  die  a  Protestant,  he  has  put 
it,  I  died  a  Protestant.  Upon  the  whole  you  came  off  with 
the  more  favourable  Censure,  because  your  Paper  is  most 
commonly  very  correct,  and  yet  you  were  never  known  to 
triumph  upon  it,  by  publickly  ridiculing  and  exposing  the 
continual  Blunders  of  your  Contemporary.  Which  Observa- 
tion was  concluded  by  a  good  old  Gentleman  in  Company, 
with  this,  general  just  Remark,  That  whoever  accustoms  him- 
self to  pass  over  in  Silence  the  Faults  of  his  Neighbours,  shall 
meet  with  much  better  Quarter  from  the  World  when  he 
happens  to  fall  into  a  Mistake  himself ;  for  the  Satyrical  and 
Censorious,  whose  Hand  is  against  every  Man,  shall  upon  such 
Occasions  have  every  Man's  Hand  against  him." 

It  was  not  in  his  paper  only  that  Franklin  the  editor 
blamed  Franklin  the  printer,  for  in  Poor  Richard,  after 
mentioning  "  a  few  Faults  "  in  a  previous  year's  issue, 
which  he  declared  were  "  Mr.  Printer's  Faults,"  he  con- 
tinued :  "  These,  and  some  others,  of  a  like  kind,  let  the 
Readers  forgive,  or  rebuke  him  for,  as  to  their  Wisdom 
and  Goodness  shall  seem  meet:  For  in  such  Cases  the 
Loss  and  Damage  is  chiefly  to  the  Reader,  who,  if  he 
does  not  take  my  Sense  at  first  Reading,  't  is  odds  he 
never  gets  it ;  for  ten  to  one  he  does  not  read  my 
Works  a  second  Time." 

200 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

In  the  hands  of  its  new  manager  the  "  Gazette " 
throve.  It  quickly  secured  the  largest  circulation  of 
any  paper  in  America,  being  distributed  from  Virginia 
to  New  York.  It  led,  too,  in  advertising  patronage, 
and  this  resulted  in  an  almost  continuous  enlargement 
of  its  size.  Franklin  himself  was  a  born  advertiser,  not 
merely  of  what  he  had  to  sell,  but  of  anything  which 
could  be  made  the  excuse  for  an  advertisement,  and 
some  issues  of  his  paper  contain  as  many  as  seven  of 
his  own.  From  a  couple  can  be  gleaned  some  of  the 
difficulties  under  which  the  publisher  labored  : 

"  This  present  Paper,  No.  303,  finishes  the  Fifth  Year,  since 
the  Printer  hereof  undertook  the  Gazette ;  no  more  need  be 
said  to  my  generous  Subscribers,  to  remind  them,  that  every 
one  of  those  who  are  above  a  Twelve-month  in  Arrear,  has  it 
in  his  Power  to  contribute  considerably  towards  the  Hap- 
piness of  his  most  obliged  humble  Servant, 

"  B.  FRANKLIN." 

"This  Gazette  Numb.  564.  begins  the  nth  Year  since  its 
first  Publication  :  And  whereas  some  Persons  have  taken  it  from 
the  Beginning,  and  others  for  7  or  8  Years,  without  paying  me 
one  Farthing,  I  do  hereby  give  Notice  to  all  who  are  upwards 
of  one  Year  in  Arrear,  that  if  they  do  not  make  speedy  Pay- 
ment, I  shall  discontinue  the  Papers  to  them,  and  take  some 
proper  Method  of  Recovering  my  Money. 

"  B.  FRANKLIN." 

To  this  advertisement  was  added  an  N.  B.  to  the  effect 
that  "  No  new  Subscriber  will  be  taken  in  for  the  future 
without  Payment  for  the  first  half  Year  advanc'd," 
which,  so  far  as  known,  is  the  first  instance  of  the  now 
universal  system  of  prepayment. 

Yet,  despite  these  delinquencies,  the  "  Gazette  "  was 
for  its  time  a  wonderfully  profitable  paper.  When  his 

201 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

second  partner  (David  Hall)  eventually  bought  Frank- 
lin out,  and  there  was  a  final  settlement,  the  statement 
shows  the  profits  from  1 748  to  i  766  to  have  been  over 
twelve  thousand  pounds  for  subscriptions  and  over  four 
thousand  pounds  for  advertisements,  Pennsylvania  cur- 
rency ;  and  though  this  account  was  settled  at  the  time, 
as  late  as  1785  Franklin  still  had  "an  old  account  to 
settle  ...  as  regards  a  particular  article  of  some  im- 
portance about  which  we  were  not  agreed.  ...  It 


97*  Gazette  will  come  out  again  on  Monday  next,  and  conti- 
nue to  be  puhlifad  on  Mondays. 

j4nd  on  the  Saturday  following  will  be  publified  Philadelphi- 
(che  2/dtung,  or  Newspaper  in  High-Dutch^  which  will  con- 
tinue to  be  pttblifled  on  Saturdays  once  a  Fortnight,  ready  to  be. 
delivered  at  Ten  a  Clock,  to  Country  Subfcribers.  Advervifi> 
mcnts  are  taken  in  by  the  Printer  hereof,  or  by  Mr.  Louis  Timo- 
thct> -Language  Majler,  who  travflates  them. 


ADVERTISEMENT  OF  THE   FIRST  FOREIGN   NEWSPAPER   PUBLISHED 

IN   THE    UNITED   STATES. 
In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

was  the  value  of  the  copyright  in  an  established  news- 
paper of  each  of  which  from  eight  to  ten  thousand  were 
printed,"  and  he  asks  a  printer-friend  to  arbitrate  the 
matter,  because  "  though  I  never  differed  .  .  .  and 
never  should  if  that  good  honest  man  had  continued  in 
being,  to  prevent  all  dispute  on  the  above  points  with 
his  son  it  is  that  I  now  request  your  decision,  which  I 
doubt  not  will  be  satisfactory  to  us  both."  So  far  as 
can  be  learned,  Franklin  was  never  compensated  in  this 
matter,  though  the  paper  continued  to  be  printed  until 
1821,  making  it  the  longest-lived  paper  ever  issued  in 
this  country. 

202 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

The  "Pennsylvania  Gazette"  was  apparently  not 
sufficient  outlet  for  the  active  and  energetic  printer,  for 
three  years  after  he  became  its  publisher  he  began  the 
issue  of  a  paper  in  German,  designed  to  supply  the 
Palatinates  and  other  Germans  who  were  then  immi- 
grating in  such  numbers  to  Pennsylvania,  and  from  this 
time  he  printed  many  pamphlets  in  German. 

Before  this  enlargement  and  success  were  achieved, 
Franklin  had  separated  from  Meredith.  In  his  auto- 
biography he  remarks : 

"  I  perceive  that  I  am  apt  to  speak  in  the  singular  number, 
though  our  partnership  still  continu'd ;  the  reason  may  be 
that,  in  fact,  the  whole  management  of  the  business  lay  upon 
me.  Meredith  was  no  compositor,  a  poor  pressman,  and 
seldom  sober.  My  friends  lamented  my  connection  with  him, 
but  I  was  to  make  the  best  of  it.  ...  But  now  another  diffi- 
culty came  upon  me  which  I  had  never  the  least  reason  to 
expect.  Mr.  Meredith's  father,  who  was  to  have  paid  for  our 
printing-house,  according  to  the  expectations  given  me,  was 
able  to  advance  only  one  hundred  pounds  currency,  which 
had  been  paid  ;  and  a  hundred  more  was  due  to  the  merchant, 
who  grew  impatient,  and  su'd  us  all.  We  gave  bail,  but  saw 
that,  if  the  money  could  not  be  rais'd  in  time,  the  suit  must 
soon  come  to  a  judgment  and  execution,  and  our  hopeful 
prospects  must,  with  us,  be  ruined,  as  the  press  and  letters 
must  be  sold  for  payment,  perhaps  at  half  price." 

"  In  this  distress,"  Franklin  relates,  "  two  true  friends, 
whose  kindness  I  have  never  forgotten,  nor  ever  shall 
forget  while  I  can  remember  anything,  came  to  me 
separately,  unknown  to  each  other  and  without  any  ap- 
plication from  me,  offering  each  of  them  to  advance  me 
all  the  money  that  should  be  necessary  to  enable  me 
to  take  the  whole  business  upon  myself."  Meredith, 

203 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

who  was  "  often  seen  drunk  in  the  streets,  and  playing 
at  low  games  in  the  ale  houses,"  had  ceased  to  take  an 
interest  in  his  work,  and  it  was  finally  agreed  that,  if 
Franklin  would  assume  the  debts,  return  Meredith's 
father  the  hundred  pounds  he  had  advanced,  and  pay 
Meredith  a  small  sum,  he  would  relinquish  the  partner- 
ship ;  and  on  these  terms  Franklin  became  sole  owner  of 
the  printing-office. 

Though  the  bulk  of  the  issues  of  Franklin's  press  are 
of  little  moment,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  as  a  whole 
they  contain  more  of  genuine  merit  than  those  of -any 
other  printer  of  the  same  or  previous  periods  in  the  col- 
onies, the  amount  of  doctrinal  and  polemical  theology 
being  a  minimum,  and  bearing  a  less  proportion  to  the 
whole  mass  than  can  be  found  in  the  books  of  contempo- 
rary American  printers.  In  the  earliest  years  of  the  ven- 
ture he  took  the  risk  of  printing  two  little  volumes  of 
American  poetry,  as  well  as  reprinting  other  verses  of 
European  origin.  In  1741  he  published  the  earliest 
American  medical  treatise,  Colden's  "  Essay  on  the  Iliac 
Passion,"  and  four  years  later  the  second  Cadwalader's 
"  Essay  on  the  West  India  Dry  Gripes."  From  his 
press  came  the  first  two  pamphlets  against  slavery.  In 
1744  he  reprinted  Richardson's  "Pamela,"  the  first 
novel  printed  in  America.  Despite  his  personal  disre- 
gard of  the  classics,  as  early  as  1735  he  printed  James 
Logan's  translation  of  Cato's  "  Moral  Distichs,"  the 
first  Latin  work  to  be  both  translated  and  printed  in 
America,  which  he  prefaced  by  the  remark : 

"  In  most  Places  that  I  am  acquainted  with,  so  great  is  the 
present  Corruption  of  Manners,  that  a  Printer  shall  find  much 

204 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

more  Profit  in  such  Things  as  flatter  and  encourage  Vice,  than 
in  such  as  tend  to  promote  its  contrary.  It  would  be  thought 
a  Piece  of  Hypocrisy  and  pharisaical  Ostentation  in  me,  if  I 


Juft  Publifhed, 
And  to  be  fold  by  B.  FRANKLIN,  the  follow 

ing  B  O  O  K  S, 
I.  A-pH<*  POCKET  ALMANACK, 

J[     for  the  Year  1  745* 

FI   D  A  ME  L  Ai-or  ViRf  ui  regarded.  In  a 

r  Series  of  FAMILIAR  LETTERS 

from  a  beautiful  young  Danifel,    tt  her  Parents, 

AW'  firfl  Publijbed,    in  order  to  cultivate  the 

Principles  of  Virtue  and  Religion  in  the  Minds 

cftbe  Youth  e/both  Sexes. 

A  Narrative  which  has  its  Foundation  in  Truth 

end  Nature  ;  and  at  the  fame  time  that  it  a- 

grce.ably  entertains,    by  a  Variety  of  curious 

fWafte&ing  INCIDENTS,*  is  intirely  dive  fed 

•fall  tkofe  images  ,    which  >   in  too  many  Pie- 

ces,   calculated  for  Amufcment  onlyf    tend  to 

inflame     the    Minds     they    Jhould    inftru&. 

Price  6  s. 

*"•  A  Preservative  from  the  SinsandFolIies 

•£*-  of  Childhood  and  Votfth,  written  by  way  of 
ffft'on  and  Arfwer.     To  lobieb  are  added,  fome 


l*JlrUf}jons>  inVerje.  By  I.  Watts,  D. 

«  rice  5^  d  « 


ADVERTISEMENT   OF  "   PAMELA." 
In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

should  say,  that  I  print  these  Distichs  more  with  a  View  to 
the  Good  of  others  than  my  own  private  Advantage:  And 
indeed  I  cannot  say  it ;  for  I  confess,  I  have  so  great  Confi- 
dence in  the  common  Virtue  and  Good  Sense  of  the  People 
of  this  and  the  neighbouring  Provinces,  that  I  expect  to  sell  a 
very  good  Impression." 

205 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Apparently  in  this  he  was  not  disappointed,  and  nine 
years  later  he  published  a  second  translation  of  Logan's^ 
believing  "  it  to  be  in  itself  equal  at  least,  if  not  far 
preferable  to  any  other  Translation  of  the  same  Piece 
extant  in  our  Language,"  which  he  printed 

"  In  a  large  and  fair  Character,  that  those  who  begin  to  think 
on  the  Subject  of  OLD-AGE,  (which  seldom  happens  till  their 
Sight  is  somewhat  impair'd  by  its  Approaches)  may  not,  in 
Reading,  by  the  Pain  small  Letters  give  the  Eyes,  feel  the 
Pleasure  of  the  Mind  in  the  least  allaved." 


SIGNATURE  OF  FRANKLIN'S  PARTNER.     .-' 


This  particular  book  Franklin  always  considered  the 
finest  product  of  his  press,  and  so  proud  was  he  of  it 
that  he  sent  five  hundred  copies  to  London,  where  they 
were  put  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Becket  for  sale — with- 
out much  profit,  as  it  would  appear,  for  nearly  forty 
years  later  Franklin  wrote  to  ask  if  he  could  obtain  a 
copy,  and  casually  mentioned  that  he  "  never  had  an 
account  of  their  being  sold."  His  greatest  publishing- 
success/'  Poor  Richard's  Almanac,"  and  his  greatest 
publishing  failure,  the  "  General  Magazine,"  are  treated 
elsewhere.  In  all  these  new  departures  Franklin  was 
something  more  than  the  mere  printer,  and  he  offered 
Golden  to  print  "  your  piece  on  gravitation  "  "  at  my 
own  expense  and  risk,"  adding: 

206 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

"  If  I  can  be  the  means  of  communicating  any  thing  valu- 
able to  the  world,  I  do  not  always  think  of  gaining,  nor  even 
of  saving,  by  my  business  ;  but  a  piece  of  that  kind,  as  it  must 
excite  the  curiosity  of  all  the  learned,  can  hardly  fail  of  bear- 
ing its  own  expense." 

A  Scotch  journeyman,  David  Hall,  whom  Franklin 
took  into  his  employment  in  1743,  was  admitted  to  a 
partnership  five  years  later.  He  "  took  off  my  hands 
all  care  of  the  printing  office,  paying  me  punctually  my 
share  of  the  profits  "  ;  and  Franklin,  in  congratulating 
a  friend  on  a  "  return  to  your  beloved  retirement," 
wrote  with  evident  pleasure  that  he,  too,  was  "  taking 
the  proper  measures  for  obtaining  leisure  to  enjoy  life 
and  my  friends  more  than  hitherto,  having  put  my 
printing-house  under  the  care  of  my  partner,  David 
Hall,  absolutely  left  off  bookselling  and  removed  to  a 
more  quiet  part  of  the  town,  where  I  am  settling  my 
old  accounts,  and  hope  soon  to  be  quite  master  of  my 
own  time."  "This  partnership  continued  eighteen 
years,  successfully  for  us  both,"  at  the  end  of  which 
time  Hall  became  the  purchaser  of  the  outfit. 

This  did  not  mean  that  Franklin  wholly  retired  from 
his  connection  with  printing,  for  long  before  this  he  had 
established  a  number  of  printing-offices  in  other  towns. 
For  instance,  in  I  733  "  I  sent  one  of  my  journeymen  to 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  where  a  printer  was  want- 
ing. I  furnish'd  him  with  a  press  and  letters,  on  the 
agreement  of  partnership  by  which  I  was  to  receive  one 
third  of  the  profits  of  the  business,  paying  one  third  of 
the  expense."  The  partnership  in  Carolina  having 
succeeded,  "  I  was  encotirag'd  to  engage  in  others  and 

207 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

to  promote  several  of  my  workmen  who  had  behaved 
well  by  establishing  them  with  printing-houses  in  differ- 
ent colonies,  on  the  same  terms  as  that  in  Carolina." 
One  of  these  was  James  Parker,  whom  he  established 
in  New  York,  and  by  1 743  he  had  "  three  printing- 
houses  in  three  different  colonies,  and  purpose  to  set  up 
a  fourth  if  I  can  meet  with  a  proper  person  to  manage 
it,  having  all  the  materials  ready  for  that  purpose." 
Five  years  later  he  sent  an  outfit  to  Antigua,  in  the 
West  Indies,  under  the  charge  of  a  journeyman  who 
had  "  worked  with  me  here  and  in  my  printing-house  in 
New  York  three  or  four  years."  He  was  also  interested 
in  a  printing-office  in  Kingston,  Jamaica,  and,  as  already 
noted,  he  took  two  of  his  nephews  as  apprentices,  and 
when  they  were  trained  helped  them  to  establish  them- 
selves as  printers.  "  Most  of  them  did  well,  being  en- 
abled at  the  end  of  our  term,  six  years,  to  purchase  the 
types  of  me  and  go  on  working  for  themselves,  by 
which  means  several  families  were  raised.  Partnerships 
often  finish  in  quarrels;  but  I  was  happy  in  this  that 
mine  were  all  carried  on  and  ended  amicably." 

Nor  did  his  retirement  from  active  printing  lessen  his 
interest  in  his  trade,  and  every  possible  improvement  in 
the  art  received  attention  from  him.  In  1753,  for  in- 
stance, he  suggested  that  his  London  agent  should 
"  persuade  your  press-maker  to  go  out  of  his  road  a 
little"  in  making  a  press,  in  order  to  include  certain 
improvements  that  Franklin  had  invented,  since  with 
these  it  "  never  gravels ;  the  hollow  face  of  the  ribs 
keeps  the  oil  better,  and  the  cramps,  bearing  on  the 
larger  surface,  do  not  wear,  as  in  the  common  method. 

208 


^ysp/f*^ 

^^c>tS 

v\ 


Hath  put  himfelf,  and  by  thefe  Prefents,     - 

_  .._  _  __      doth  voluntarily,  and  of  his  own 

free  Will  and  Accord,  put  himfelf  Apprentice  to 


learn  his  Art,  Trade,  and  Myftery,  and  after  the  Manner  of  an  Apprentice 
to  ferye  X^'"  <  "  r&(5$t  -sy<rs/"S"  'j£<™/6'st,  from  the  Day  of  the  Date 
hereof,  for,  and  during,  and  unto  the  full  End  and  Term.  of  "/&•*•#  /t/'ja'i 
—  —  —  --—-  next  enfuing.  During'  all.  v/hich  Term,  the  faid  Apprentice  his  faid 
Mafter  faithfully  fnall  ferve,  his  Secrets  keep,  his  -lawful  Commands  every- 
where readily  obey.  He  fhall  do  no  Damage  to  his  faid  Mafter,  nor  fee  it  to'  be 
done  by  others  without  letting  or  giving  Notice  thereof  to  his  faid  Mafter. 
He  fliall  not  waite  his  faid  Matter's  Goods,  nor  lend  them  unlawfully  to  any. 
He  fhall  not  commit  Fornication,  norcomraift  Matrimony  within  the  faid  Term. 
At  Cards,  Dice,  or  any  other  unlawful  Game,  he  fliall  not  play,  whereby  his 
faid  Mafter  may  have  Damage.  \Vith  his  own  Goods;  nor  the  Goods  of  others, 
without  Licence  from  his  faid  Mafter,  he  fhall  neither  buy  nor  fell.  He  fhall 
not  abfcnt  himfelf  Day  nor  Night  from  his  faid  Mailer's  Service,  without  his 
Leave:  Nor  haunt  Ale-houfes,  Taverns,  or  Play-houfes  ;  but  in  all  Things 
behave  himfelf  as  a  faithful  .Apprentice  ought  to  do,  during  the  faid  Term. 
Anil  the  faid  Mafter  fhall  ufe  the  utmoft  of  his  Endeavour  to  teach  or  eaufe  - 
to  be  taught  or  inftructed  the  faid  Apprentice  in  the  Trade  or  Myftery  of 
S^ss'Ssss^  t.  ~—  ,  ----  .  and  procure  and  provide  for  him  fufficient 
Meat,  .Drink,  .^s£*:/tfs  —  .  --  Lodging  and  Warning  fitting  for  aa 
Apprentice,  during  the  faid  Term  of  ^v^,^  ''in,  :•***>  j«t. 
f^Vt/s^/tf'si  stfo-r-s  "S  « 


A  N  D  for  the  true  Performance  of  all  and  fingular  the  Covenants  arid  Agree-7 
ments  aforefaid,-  the  faid  Parties  bind  therafelves  each  unto  the  other  firmly  by 
thefe  Pretents.  IN  WITNESS  whereof,  the  faid  Parties  have  interchange- 
ably  fet  their J3ands  and  Seals  hereunto. .  Dated  the  Sff/^' 
Day  of .  1<rtnrm  S,  -t  in  the  r.x£^ /£*•<*/<  Year  of  the  fceign  of  our 
Sovereign  Lord  -&*>?<  //C *<f<e*&  King  of  Crtat-Bri'toin,  &c. 
Jnmxjue  'Domini  One  Thoufand  Seven  Hundred  and 

Sealed  and  deli-uertd.in 

tbtPrefenceofus  i  .'''•., 


h }  JPrinfed  and  Sold  by  9.  &•«**&•'',  M  |He  Nw 

INDENTURE   OF  JAMKS   FRANKLIN   TO   HIS   UNCLE   BENJAMIN. 
Original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Of  this  I  have  had  many  years  experience."  When 
Cadwallader  Golden  conceived  the  idea  of  stereotyping, 
and  wrote  to  Franklin  about  it,  the  new  invention  re- 
ceived his  prompt  attention,  he  conducted  a  series  of 
experiments  designed  to  test  its  value,  and  it  is  sup- 
posed that  he  communicated  the  idea  to  Didot  when  in 
France. 

On  a  somewhat  kindred  subject  he  wrote  to  John 
Walter,  who  afterward  became  famous  as  a  founder  of 
the  London  "Times,"  that  he  had  read  his  "  Introduc- 
tion to  Logography,"  which  he  thought  "  extremely 
ingenious";  and  "  I  like  much  the  idea  of  cementing 
the  letters  instead  of  casting  words  of  syllables,  which 
I  formerly  attempted  and  succeeded  in  having  invented 
a  mould  and  method  by  which  I  could  in  a  few  min- 
utes form  a  matrice,  adjust  it  to  any  word  in  any  font 
at  pleasure  and  proceed  to  cast  from  it."  Though  this 
scheme  of  Walter's  proved  a  failure,  it  was  another 
step  toward  the  modern  system  of  stereotyping. 

As  the  printer  was  interested  in  shortening  the  pro- 
cesses of  composition,  so  he  was  interested  in  typog- 
raphy, and  a  friendship  that  he  quickly  formed  in 
England  was  with  John  Baskerville,  the  famous  type- 
maker.  When  a  critic  told  Franklin  that  the  founder's 
letters  "  would  be  the  means  of  blinding  all  the  readers 
in  the  nation,"  Franklin  endeavored,  without  success,  to 
"  support  your  character  against  the  charge  "  by  argu- 
ment. Not  succeeding  in  this,  when  the  fault-finder 
again  called  upon  him, 

"  Mischievously  bent  to  try  his  judgment,  I  stepped  into  my 
closet,  tore  off  the  top  of  Mr.  Caslon's  specimen,  and  pro- 

210 


PRINTER   AND   PUBLISHER 

duced  it  to  him  as  yours,  brought  with  me  from  Birmingham, 
saying,  I  had  been  examining  it,  since  he  spoke  to  me,  and 
could  not  for  my  life  perceive  the  disproportion  he  mentioned, 


i  L  L,  E, 


desiring  him  to  point  it  out  to  me.  He  readily  undertook  it. 
and  went  over  the  several  fonts,  showing  me  everywhere  what 
he  thought  instances  of  that  disproportion,  and  declared  that 
he  could  not  then  read  the  specimen  without  feeling  very 
strongly  the  pain  he  had  mentioned  to  me.  I  spared  him  that 

21  1 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

time  the  confusion  of  being  told  that  these  were  the  types  he 
had  been  reading  all  his  life  with  so  much  ease  to  his  eyes, 
the  types  his  adored  Newton  is  printed  with,  on  which  he  has 
pored  not  a  little  ;  nay,  the  very  types  his  own  book  is  printed 
with  (for  he  is  himself  an  author),  and  yet  never  discovered 
this  painful  disproportion  in  them,  till  he  thought  they  were 
yours." 

Furthermore,  Franklin  endeavored  to  get  him  orders 
from  America  by  distributing  specimens  of  his  "  let- 
ters "  among  printers. 

Interest  in  good  type  meant  interest  in  good  print- 
ing, and  Franklin  followed  the  improvements  in  books 
with  closeness.  While  minister  in  France,  he  noted  that 

"A  strong  emulation  exists  at  present  between  Paris  and 
Madrid,  with  regard  to  beautiful  printing.  Here  a  M.  Didot 
Vaine  has  a  passion  for  the  art,  and  besides  having  procured 
the  best  types,  he  has  much  improved  the  press.  The  utmost 
care  is  taken  of  his  presswork ;  his  ink  is  black,  and  his  paper 
fine  and  white.  He  has  executed  several  charming  editions. 
But  the  '  Sallust '  and  the  '  Don  Quixote '  of  Madrid  are 
thought  to  excel  them.  Didot,  however,  improves  every  day, 
and  by  his  zeal  and  indefatigable  application  bids  fair  to  carry 
the  art  to  a  high  pitch  of  perfection.  I  will  send  you  a  sample 
of  his  work  when  I  have  an  opportunity." 

Franklin  was  not,  however,  too  much  of  a  printer 
ever  to  forget  the  reader,  and  in  the  last  years  of  his 
life  he  made  some  criticisms  on  his  craft  which  are  as 
true  to-day  as  when  he  wrote  them.  "  By  a  fancy  of 
printers,"  he  complained,  they  have  "  suppressed  the 
capitalizing  of  all  substantives,"  with  the  idea  of  show- 
ing the  "character  to  greater  advantage;  those  letters 
prominent  above  the  line  disturbing  its  even,  regular 
appearance,"  which  he  very  properly  remarked  was  "  a 

212 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

gain  in  appearance  at  the  expense  of  the  reader";  and 
any  one  who  has  read  eighteenth-century  books  before 
"  the  invention  of  that  pretended  improvement  "  had 
been  made  will  agree  with  him.  Furthermore, 

"  From  fondness  for  an  even  and  uniform  appearance  of  char- 
acters in  the  line,  the  printers  have  of  late  banished  also  the 
italic  types,  in  which  words  of  importance  to  be  attended  to 
in  the  sense  of  the  sentence,  and  words  on  which  an  emphasis 
should  be  put  in  reading,  used  to  be  printed.  And  lately 
another  fancy  has  induced  some  "printers  to  use  the  short 
round  s,  instead  of  the  long  one,  which  formerly  served  well 
to  distinguish  a  word  readily  by  its  varied  appearance.  Cer- 
tainly the  omitting  this  prominent  letter  makes  the  line  appear 
more  even,  but  renders  it  less  immediately  legible;  as  the 
paring  all  men's  noses  might  smooth  and  level  their  faces,  but 
would  render  their  physiognomies  less  distinguishable. 

"  Add  to  all  these  improvements  backwards,  another  modern 
fancy,  that  gray  printing  is  more  beautiful  than  black ;  hence 
the  English  new  books  are  printed  in  so  dim  a  character  as  to 
be  read  with  difficulty  by  old  eyes,  unless  in  a  very  strong 
light  and  with  good  glasses.  Whoever  compares  a  volume  of 
the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  printed  between  the  years  1731  and 
1740,  with  one  of  those  printed  in  the  last  ten  years,  will  be 
convinced  of  the  much  greater  degree  of  perspicuity  given 
by  black  ink  than  by  gray.  Lord  Chesterfield  pleasantly 
remarked  this  difference  to  Faulkener,  the  printer  of  the 
Dublin  Journal,  who  was  vainly  making  encomiums  on  his 
own  paper,  as  the  most  complete  of  any  in  the  world.  '  But, 
Mr.  Faulkener,'  said  my  Lord,  'don't  you  think  it  might  be 
still  farther  improved  by  using  paper  and  ink  not  quite  so  near 
of  a  color?  '  For  all  these  reasons  I  cannot  but  wish  that  our 
American  printers  would,  in  their  editions,  avoid  these  fancied 
improvements,  and  thereby  render  their  works  more  agreeable 
to  foreigners  in  Europe,  to  the  great  advantage  of  our  book- 
selling commerce," 

He  was  equally  severe  on  another  book-making  fault 
of  the  time.  "  One  can  scarce  see  a  new  book,"  he 

213 


WILLIAM   STRAHAN. 
After  the  portrait  in  the  possession  of  Clarence  W.  Bement. 


PRINTER   AND   PUBLISHER 

wrote,  "  without  observing  the  excessive  artifices  made 
use  of  to  puff  up  a  paper  of  verses  into  a  pamphlet,  a 
pamphlet  into  an  octavo,  and  an  octavo  into  a  quarto, 
with  scab-boardings,  whitelines,  sparse  titles  of  chap- 
ters, and  exorbitant  margins,  to  such  a  degree  that  the 
selling  of  paper  seems  now  the  object,  and  printing  on 
it  only  the  pretence.  I  enclose  the  copy  of  a  page  in 
a  late  comedy.  Between  every  two  lines  there  is  a 
white  space  equal  to  another  line.  You  have  a  law,  I 
think,  against  butchers  blowing  veal  to  make  it  look 
fatter?  why  not  one  against  booksellers  blowing  books 
to  make  them  look  bigger?" 

Franklin  always  credited  his  knowledge  of  good 
book-making  to  his  experience  in  Watts's  printing- 
house,  and  it  is  stated  that  "  at  every  entertainment 
which  he  gave  his  workmen  during  the  life  of  Watts  the 
health  of  his  old  friend  and  master  was  one  of  the 
toasts."  When,  too,  he  went  to  England  in  1757  as 
agent  for  his  colony,  one  of  the  first  things  he  did  was 
to  seek  out  his  old  employer ;  and  it  is  related  that  with 
him  he  went  to  the  composing-room  where  he  had 
formerly  worked,  voluntarily  contributed  the  bienvenu, 
or  sum  for  drink,  he  had  once  so  persistently  refused, 
and  proposed  the  toast  "  Success  to  Printing." 

A  London  printer  with  whom  an  even  greater  friend- 
ship existed  was  William  Strahan.  The  acquaintance 
started  merely  as  a  business  connection  in  1743,  but 
with  Franklin's  next  visit  to  London  it  quickly  became 
a  personal  one,  and  ripened  to  such  a  degree  that  the 
two  men  agreed  upon  a  marriage  between  their  chil- 
dren. Strahan  used  his  utmost  influence  to  get  Frarrk- 

215 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

lin  to  settle  in  England  permanently,  not  merely  pro- 
posing "several  advantageous  schemes  to  me,"  but 
writing  urgently  to  his  wife.  In  time  Strahan  became 
printer  to  the  king,  and  eventually  was  elected  to 
Parliament.  In  this  body  he  was  an  adherent  of  the 
government,  voting  for  most  of  the  measures  of  which 
America  complained,  and  this  drew  from  Franklin  the 
letter  which  has  become  so  famous,  written  in  a  moment 
of  bitterness  upon  hearing  of  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill,  but  which  expressed  merely  the  moment's  heat, 
and  so  was  never  sent  to  his  friend.  Even  through  the 
Revolution  a  frank  and  affectionate  correspondence  was 
maintained,  differ  as  they  might  in  opinion,  and  a  satiric 
description  Franklin  gave  of  the  condition  of  England 
at  the  end  of  the  war  is  well  worthy  of  quotation. 
Alluding  to  the  general  scramble  there  for  office  or 
money,  he  said :  "  To  speak  in  our  old  style  (brother 
type),"  these  "may  be  good  for  the  chapel,  but  they 
are  bad  for  the  master,  as  they  create  constant  quarrels 
that  hinder  the  business.  For  example,  here  are  two 
months  that  your  government  has  been  employed  in 
getting  its  form  to  press;  which  is  not  yet  fit  to  work  on, 
every  page  of  it  being  squabbled,  and  the  whole  ready 
to  fall  into  pi.  The  fonts,  too,  must  be  very  scanty,  or 
strangely  out  of  sorts,  since  your  compositors  cannot  find 
either  upper  or  lower  case  letters  sufficient  to  set  the 
word  ADMINISTRATION,  but  are  forced  to  be  continu- 
ally turning  for  them.  However,  to  return  to  common 
(though  perhaps  too  saucy)  language,  do  not  despair; 
you  have  still  one  resource  left,  and  that  not  a  bad  one, 
since  it  may  reunite  the  empire.  We  have  some  re- 

2l6 


G^    a 


m 


<jil 


A 


^/T***^ 


A    LETTER  WRITTEN,    HUT   NEVER   SENT,    BY   FRANKLIN   TO   STRAHAN. 
Original  in  the  Department  of  State,  Washington,  D.  C. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

mains  of  affection  for  you,  and  shall  always  be  ready  to 
receive  and  take  care  of  you  in  case  of  distress.  So  if 
you  have  not  sense  and  virtue  enough  to  govern  your- 
selves, e'en  dissolve  your  present  old  crazy  constitu- 
tion, and  send  members  to  Congress."  With  even 
greater  cleverness  of  metaphor,  Franklin  later  told  him  : 

"  I  remember  your  observing  once  to  me  as  we  sat  together 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  that  no  two  journeymen  printers 
within  your  knowledge  had  met  with  such  success  in  the  world 
as  ourselves.  You  were  then  at  the  head  of  your  profession, 
and  soon  afterwards  became  a  member  of  Parliament.  I  was 
an  agent  for  a  few  provinces,  and  now  act  for  them  all.  But 
we  have  risen  by  different  modes.  I,  as  a  republican  printer, 
always  liked  a  form  well  planed  down;  being  averse  to  those 
overbearing  letters  that  hold  their  heads  so  high  as  to  hinder 
their  neighbors  from  appearing.  You,  as  a  monarchist,  chose 
to  work  upon  crown  paper,  and  found  it  profitable ;  while  I 
worked  upon  pro  patria  (often  indeed  called  foolscap}  with  no 
less  advantage.  Both  our  heaps  hold  out  very  well,  and  we 
seem  likely  to  make  a  pretty  good  day's  work  of  it.  With 
regard  to  public  affairs  (to  continue  in  the  same  style),  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  compositors  in  your  chapel  do  not  cast  off  their 
copy  well,  nor  perfectly  understand  imposing;  their  forms,  too, 
are  continually  pestered  by  the  outs  and  doubles,  that  are  not 
easy  to  be  corrected.  And  I  think  they  were  wrong  in  laying 
aside  some  faces,  and  particularly  certain  head-pieces,  that 
would  have  been  both  useful  and  ornamental." 

Nothing  proved  better  the  printer's  attachment  for 
his  calling  than  an  amusement  during  his  diplomatic 
service  in  France.  In  his  own  home  he  set  up  a  press 
and  types,  all  of  which  he  or  his  servants  cast,  and 
with  them  occasionally  printed  little  bagatelles  and  skits 
of  both  his  friends'  writing  and  his  own,  usually  in 
very  small  editions.  These  "  printing  materials,  con- 
sisting of  a  great  variety  of  fonts,"  he  brought  with 

218 


PRINTER   AND    PUBLISHER 

him  on  his  return  to  America,  and  used  them  to 
establish  his  grandson,  Benjamin  Franklin  Bache,  in 
"  business  as  a  printer,  the  original  occupation  of  his 
grandfather,"  explaining  to  a  friend:  "  I  am  too  old  to 
follow  printing  again  myself,  but,  loving  the  business,  I 
have  brought  up  my  grandson  Benjamin  to  it,  and  have 
built  and  furnished  a  printing-house  for  him,  which  he 
now  manages  under  my  eye." 

Despite  the  many  honors  that  had  come  to  him,  to 
the  last  he  held  himself  to  be  first  and  foremost  a 
printer,  and  began  his  will,  "  I,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
Printer,  late  Minister  Plenipotentiary  from  the  United 
States  of  America  to  the  Court  of  France,  and  now 
President  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania."  It  was  at  his 
own  request  that  "  the  Printers  of  the  city,  with  their 
Journeymen  and  Apprentices,"  were  given  a  prominent 
position  in  his  funeral  procession. 


RIS  Bill  etrtitU-s  the 
Bearer  to  receive 
'iro  SPANISH  MILL- 
IS  DOLLARS,  or  the 
tlveroof  in  GOL» 
LR,  accord 
Rcfultttion  of  C 
1RESS.  psfTed  at  fin- 


CONTINENTAL  PAPER  MONEY  DESIGNED   BY   FRANKLIN. 


219 


FRANKLIN   SEAL. 


VI 
WRITER    AND    JOURNALIST 

T^RANKLIN'S  grandfather  on  the  maternal  side,  arid 
A  his  uncle,  were  both  confirmed  scribblers  of  rhyme, 
and  therefore  it  was  seemingly  preordained  by  heritage 
and  by  example  that  he  should  write.  At  seven  years 
of  age  the  boy  sent  a  poem  to  his  uncle  Benjamin,  and 
the  recipient  wrote  back : 

'  'T  is  time  for  me  to  throw  aside  my  pen, 
When  hanging  sleeves  read,  write,  and  rhyme  like  men. 
This  forward  spring  foretells  a  plenteous  crop ; 
For,  if  the  bud  bear  grain,  what  will  the  top! 

If  first  years'  shoots  such  noble  clusters  send, 

What  laden  boughs,  Engedi-like,  may  we  expect  in  the  end !  " 

He  was  thirteen  years  of  age,  and  a  printer's  appren- 
tice, before  any  further  evidence  of  his  writing  is  to  be 

220 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

found,  and  his  ambition  was  still  to  be  a  rhymester.  "  I 
now  took  a  fancy  to  write  poetry,  and  made  some  little 
pieces,"  he  relates  in  his  autobiography  ;  and  his  printer- 
brother,  "  thinking  it  might  turn  to  account,  encouraged 
me,  and  put  me  on  composing  occasional  ballads.  One 
was  called  '  The  Lighthouse  Tragedy,'  and  contained  an 
account  of  the  drowning  of  Captain  Worthilake,  with 
his  two  daughters  ;  the  other  was  a  sailor's  song,  on  the 
taking  of  Teach  (or  Blackbeard)  the  pirate.  They  were 
wretched  stuff,  in  the  Grub-street-ballad  style  ;  and  when 
they  were  printed  he  sent  me  about  the  town  to  sell 
them."  Recently  what  is  supposed  to  be  the  original  of 
his  poem  on  Teach  has  been  unearthed,  and  a  stanza  de- 
serves quotation,  as  an  example  of  his  earliest  writing 
now  extant : 

"  Will  you  hear  of  a  bloody  Battle, 

Lately  fought  upon  the  Seas, 
It  will  make  your  Ears  to  rattle, 

And  your  Admiration  cease ; 
Have  you  heard  of  Teach  the  Rover, 

And  his  Knavery  on  the  Main ; 
How  of  Gold  he  was  a  Lover, 

How  he  lov'd  all  ill  got  Gain." 

Whatever  their  merit,  Franklin  scored  a  success  in  his 
first  essay  in  letters.  The  ballads  sold  well,  one,  in  fact, 
"  wonderfully,"  which  "  flattered  my  vanity;  but  my 
father  discouraged  me  by  ridiculing  my  performances, 
and  telling  me  verse-makers  were  generally  beggars. 
So  I  escaped  being  a  poet,  most  probably  a  very  bad 
one." 

Laughed  out  of  poetry,  the  lad  turned  to  prose,  and 
here  again  his  father's  criticism  influenced  him.  Having 

221 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

engaged  in  an  argument  on  "  the  propriety  of  educating 
the  female  sex  in  learning,  and  their  abilities  for  study," 
with  a  friend,  who  "  was  naturally  more  eloquent"  and 
"  had  a  ready  plenty  of  words,"  Franklin  was  worsted, 
so  he  thought,  "  more  by  his  fluency  than  by  the 
strength  of  his  reasons."  Accordingly,  "  I  sat  down  to 
put  my  arguments  in  writing,  which  I  copied  fair  and 
sent  to  him.  He  answered,  and  I  replied.  Three  or 
four  letters  of  a  side  had  passed,  when  my  father  hap- 
pened to  find  my  papers  and  read  them.  Without 
entering  into  the  discussion,  he  took  occasion  to  talk  to 
me  about  the  manner  of  my  writing;  observed  that, 
though  I  had  the  advantage  of  my  antagonist  in  correct 
spelling  and  pointing  (which  I  ow'd  to  the  printing- 
house),  I  fell  far  short  in  elegance  of  expression,  in 
method  and  in  perspicuity,  of  which  he  convinced  me 
by  several  instances.  I  saw  the  justice  of  his  remarks, 
and  thence  grew  more  attentive  to  the  manner  in  writing, 
and  determined  to  endeavor  at  improvement." 

"  About  this  time  I  met  with  an  odd  volume  of  the  Spectator. 
...  I  bought  it,  read  it  over  and  over,  and  was  much  de- 
lighted with  it,  I  thought  the  writing  excellent,  and  wished, 
if  possible,  to  imitate  it.  With  this  view  I  took  some  of  the 
papers,  and,  making  short  hints  of  the  sentiment  in  each 
sentence,  laid  them  by  a  few  days,  and  then,  without  looking 
at  the  book,  try'd  to  compleat  the  papers  again,  by  expressing 
each  hinted  sentiment  at  length,  and  as  fully  as  it  had  been 
expressed  before,  in  any  suitable  words  that  should  come  to 
hand.  Then  I  compared  my  Spectator  with  the  original,  dis- 
covered some  of  my  faults,  and  corrected  them.  But  I  found 
that  I  wanted  .a  stock  of  words,  or  a  readiness  in  recollecting 
and  using  them,  which  I  thought  I  should  have  acquired  be- 
fore that  time  if  I  had  gone  on  making  verses ;  since  the  con- 
tinued occasion  for  words  of  the  same  import,  but  of  different 

222 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

length,  to  suit  the  measure,  or  of  different  sound  for  the  rhyme, 
would  have  laid  me  under  a  constant  necessity  of  searching  for 
variety,  and  also  have  tended  to  fix  that  variety  in  my  mind, 


GRAMMAR 


O  F    T  H  E 


With  NOTES, 

Giving  the  Grounds  and  Reafon  of 

Grammar  in  General. 

To  which  arc  now  added, 


The  Arts  of  Toetrj^ 

Making  a  Compleat  Syftem  of  an 

Englifb  Education. 

For  the  Ufc  of  the 

SCHOOLS 


O  F 


GREAT  BRITAIN  and  IRELAND. 


,  toitf)  3!mpjofoemmti3. 


,  Printed  by  R.B.  for  JOHNBRICHTLAND 

Sold  by  Mr.  Ton/on  in  the  Strand,  Mr.  Bf(mn  and  Mr.  Tookr  it  Tent 
fl<.b*r,Mr.W4ltho(  and  Mr.lK.rd  in  the  Temple,  Mr.  tkurchiS  an, 
r  In  Pjifr.no/tfr-row  ;  Mr.  Child,  Mr.  /Cnjc/on,  and  Mr.Mid 
' 


, 

Mr.  Tayl 
winter  in  St.  P*ut'i  Church-yard  ;  Mr.  Soddingtyn 


Ml.Sfrint  in  Littlr-B,itain  ;  Mr.fhiUif,,  Mr.St'uhin.ind  Mr.Snil 
at  the  Rejil.Exchan&t  ,  Mr.  Vtrntim  and  Mr.  Otborne  in  Lombard 
H'tct  ,  Mr.  Tioroon  J.onrlon-britisr  |  Mi.  frrebart,  in  £di*\nt>ch 
Mr.  Dobfin,  iu  Dablin  ;  and  other  Bookftllers.  M  D  C  C  X  I  I. 


THE  GRAMMAR   FROM   WHICH    FRANKLIN 
LEARNED    ENGLISH. 


and  make  me  master  of  it.  Therefore  I  took  some  of  the  tales 
and  turned  them  into  verse  ;  and,  after  a  time,  when  I  had 
pretty  well  forgotten  the  prose,  turned  them  back  again.  I 
also  sometimes  jumbled  my  collection  of  hints  into  contusion, 

223 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

and  after  some  weeks  endeavored  to  reduce  them  into  the  best 
order,  before  I  began  to  form  the  full  sentences  and  compleat 
the  paper.  This  was  to  teach  me  method  in  the  arrangement 
of  thoughts.  By  comparing  my  work  afterwards  with  the 
original,  I  discovered  many  faults  and  amended  them ;  but  I 
sometimes  had  the  pleasure  of  fancying  that,  in  certain  par- 
ticulars of  small  import,  I  had  been  lucky  enough  to  improve 
the  method  or  the  language,  and  this  encouraged  me  to  think 
I  might  possibly  in  time  come  to  be  a  tolerable  English  writer, 
of  which  I  was  extreamly  ambitious.  My  time  for  these  exer- 
cises and  for  reading  was  at  night,  after  work  or  before  it 
began  in  the  morning,  or  on  Sundays,  when  I  contrived  to  be 
in  the  printing-house  alone." 

It  was  undoubtedly  this  admiration  for  the  "  Spec- 
tator "  which  inspired  his  next  contributions  to  literature, 
for  it  is  from  that  series  clearly  that  the  young  author 
took  his  model.  On  a  March  night  in  the  year  1722, 
or  when  the  lad  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  he  slipped  a 
paper  under  the  door  of  what  James  Franklin  advertised 
as  his  "  Printing-House  over  against  Mr.  Sheaf's  School, 
near  the  Prison,"  and  then  stole  away.  The  next  day, 
as  the  apprentice  stood  at  his  type-case,  he  could  hear 
his  brother  consulting  with  the  "  ingenious  men  among 
his  friends,  who  amus'd  themselves  by  writing  little 
pieces  "  for  the  paper,  as  to  who  could  be  the  author  of 
the  sheets  with  the  humble  signature  of  "  Silence  Do- 
good,"  and  it  is  easy  to  imagine  his  pride  when  he  heard 
the  essay  praised  by  them  ;  when  the  piece  appeared  in 
all  the  glory  of  type  in  the  "  New  England  Cotirant," 
and  when  his  eye  met  the  notice  in  the  same  issue  that 
"  As  the  favour  of  Mrs.  Dogood's  Correspondence  is 
acknowledged  by  the  Publisher  of  this  Paper,  lest  any 
of  her  Letters  should  miscarry,  he  desires  they  may  be 

224 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

delivered  at  his  Printing-Office,  or  at  the  Blue  Balls  in 
Union  street,  and  no  questions  will  be  ask'd  of  the 
Bearer." 

In  the  piece  thus  printed  Mrs.  Dogood  introduced 
herself  to  her  readers  in  due  form,  and  announced  that 
she  "  intends  once  a  Fortnight  to  present  them,  by  the 
Help  of  this  Paper,  with  a  short  Epistle,  which  I  pre- 
sume will  add  somewhat  to  their  Entertainment  "  ;  and 
she  was  as  good  as  her  word,  for  to  the  number  of 
fourteen  letters  the  pseudo-widow  gossips  on  female 
training  and  vices,  pride,  college  learning,  hypocrites, 
widows,  match-makers,  religion,  drinking,  etc.,  until 
"  my  small  fund  of  sense  for  such  performances  was 
pretty  well  exhausted,"  when,  unable  longer  to  contain 
the  secret,  "  I  discovered  it."  This  made  the  lad  "  con- 
sidered a  little  more  by  my  brother's  acquaintance," 
which  did  not  "  quite  please  him,  as  he  thought,  prob- 
ably with  reason,  that  it  tended  to  make  me  too  vain." 
Very  quickly,  as  already  recounted,  the  anonymous 
contributor  was  acting  as  both  publisher  and  editor  of 
the  "  Courant,"  and  in  these  capacities  he  seems  to  have 
satisfied  James  Franklin  better,  for,  while  the  last-named 
was  in  prison,  "  I  made  bold  to  give  our  rulers  some 
rubs  in  it,  which  my  brother  took  very  kindly."  He 
was  at  this  time  barely  seventeen,  and  thus  presump- 
tively the  youngest  American  editor. 

The  wandering  life  of  the  runaway  apprentice  gave 
slight  opportunity  for  the  cultivation  of  his  pen-talent, 
and,  save  for  his  little  "wicked  tract,"  the  succeeding 
years  were  lean  ones  in  production.  But  once  Franklin 
was  established  in  Philadelphia  as  a  printer,  the  ten- 
'S  225 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

dency  to  write  redeveloped,  and  proved  of  real  service 
to  him.  In  the  first  year  of  the  new  firm  he  wrote  a 
little  pamphlet  on  a  local  question,  entitled  "  The  Nature 
and  Necessity  of  a  Paper  Currency,"  and  the  opposition 
"  happening  to  have  no  writers  among  them  that  were 
able  to  answer  it,"  the  party  in  favor  of  an  issue  of 
paper  money  carried  their  point  in  the  Assembly.  "  My 
friends  there,  who  conceiv'd  that  I  had  been  of  some 
service,  thought  fit  to  reward  me  by  employing  me  in 
printing' the  money;  a  very  profitable  jobb  and  a  great 
help  to  me.  This  was  another  advantage  gain'd  by  my 
being  able  to  write." 

Once  again  within  this  first  year  Franklin's  ability  to 
use  his  pen  was  to  profit  him.  When  Keimer  stole  his 
project  of  a  newspaper,  and  forestalled  him,  in  resent- 
ment the  would-be  editor  "  wrote  several  pieces  of  enter- 
tainment for  Bradford's  paper."  This  latter,  according 
to  Franklin,  had  hitherto  been  "  a  paltry  thing,  wretch- 
edly manag'd,  no  way  entertaining,  and  yet  was  profita- 
ble " ;  but  now,  thanks  to  the  letters  of  the  "  Busy 
Body,"  which  were  much  in  the  same  style  as  those  of 
Mrs.  Dogood,  "  the  attention  of  the  publick  was  fixed 
on  that  paper,  and  Keimer's  proposals,  which  were 
burlesqu'd  and  ridicul'd,  were  disregarded."  The  new 
paper  languished,  and  within  a  year,  as  already  told, 
was  purchased  by  Franklin. 

Mr.  Keimer,  by  way  of  filling  his  columns  rather 
than  of  entertaining  his  readers,  had  begun  reprinting 
Chambers's  "great"  Cyclopaedia  and  De  Foe's  "Reli- 
gious Courtship,"  but  Franklin  was  too  instinctively  a 
journalist  to  continue  such  padding.  The  first,  he  told 

226 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

his  subscribers  in  his  inaugural,  contained  too  "  many 
Things  abstruse  and  insignificant,"  and,  moreover,  would 
take  perhaps  ten  years  to  finish.  As  for  the  second,  it 
would  shortly  be  printed  in  book  form,  and  at  the  service 
of  "  those  who  approve  it."  His  paper  thus  cleared  of 
uncurrent  and  stale  matter,  the  new  editor  set  about 
filling  it  with  news  that  should  be  both  interesting  and 
timely.  "  Our  Country  Correspondents,"  the  "  Ga- 
zette "  requested,  "  are  desired  to  acquaint  us,  as  soon 
as  they  can  conveniently,  with  every  remarkable  Acci- 
dent, Occurrence,  &c.  fit  for  publick  Notice,  that  may 
happen  within  their  Knowledge ;  in  Order  to  make  this 
Paper  more  universally  intelligent."  Having  made  his 
appeal  for  local  events,  Franklin  spread  a  broader 
drag-net,  and  the  paper  assured  its  patrons  that  "  The 
Publishers  of  this  Paper  meeting  with  considerable  En- 
couragement, are  determined  to  continue  it ;  and  to  that 
End  have  taken  Measures  to  settle  a  general  Correspon- 
dence, and  procure  the  best  and  earliest  Intelligence  from 
all  Parts.  We  shall  from  time  to  time  have  all  the  noted 
•  Publick  Prints  from  Great  Britain,  New-England,  New- 
York,  Maryland  and  Jamaica,  besides  what  News  may 
be  collected  from  private  Letters  and  Informations;  and 
we  doubt  not  of  continuing  to  give  our  Customers  all 
the  Satisfaction  they  expect  from  a  Performance  of  this 
Nature."  Try  as  Franklin  might  to  make  his  paper  a 
good  news-sheet,  it  was  not  always  easy,  and  occa- 
sionally the  "  Gazette  "  gives  voice  to  the  editorial  diffi- 
culties. One  issue,  for  instance,  informed  its  readers : 

"  After  a  long  Dearth  of  News,  we  have,  by  the  late  Ships, 
received   English  Papers   to   the    i2th  of   November.      The 

227 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

War,  tho'  it  creates  a  more  general  Appetite  for  News,  does, 
we  find,  in  this  distant  Part  of  the  World,  very  much  discon- 
cert us  News  Writers.  During  the  Peace,  Ships  were  con- 
stantly dropping  in  at  some  Port  or  other  of  this  Continent, 
and  we  had  fresh  Advices  almost  every  Week  from  Europe ; 
but  now,  by  their  waiting  for  Convoy,  and  other  Hindrances 
and  Delays,  we  are  sometimes  Months  without  having  a  Syl- 
lable. The  Consequence  is,  that  a  Series  of  News  Papers 
come  to  hand  in  a  Lump  together;  and  being  each  of  us 
ambitious  to  give  our  Readers  the  freshest  Intelligence,  we 
croud  all  the  latest  Events  into  our  First  Paper,  and  are 
obliged  to  fill  up  the  Succeeding  Ones  with  Articles  of  prior 
Date,  or  else  omit  them  entirely,  as  being  anticipated  and 
stale,  and  entertain  you  with  Matters  of  another  Nature. 
Hence  the  Chain  of  Occurrences  is  broken  or  inverted,  and 
much  of  the  News  rendered  thereby  unintelligible.  Hence 
you  have  tedious  Accounts  of  the  raising  of  Armies,  the  Mo- 
tion of  Fleets,  or  the  Siege  of  Cities,  after  you  have  been 
some  Weeks  acquainted  with  the  taking  of  those  Cities,  and 
the  beating  of  those  Fleets  and  Armies ;  or  perhaps  you  are 
never  told  at  all  by  what  Steps  those  great  Events  were 
brought  about.  Such  a  confused  Method  must  make  any 
Writings  of  a  historical  Nature  less  entertaining  and  instruc- 
tive to  the  intelligent  Reader.  We  purpose  therefore  to  avoid 
it  for  the  future  in  this  Paper,  as  much  as  may  be,  and  doubt 
not,  but  that  for  the  sake  of  a  clear  and  regular  Account  of 
the  Affairs  of  Europe,  our  Readers  will  excuse  us  if  we  happen 
now  and  then  to  be  a  Week  or  two  later  than  others  with 
some  particular  Articles." 

Measured  by  its  contemporaries,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  Franklin  succeeded  in  making  the  "Gazette"  a 
newspaper.  Thefts,  murders,  rapes,  etc.,  were  described 
with  a  detail  which  might  be  termed  modern,  but  for  this 
very  example  that  the  new  journalism  is  not  new.  Real 
pains  were  taken  to  chronicle  local  events,  and  though 
the  results  seem  meager,  it  was  far  better  done  than  by 
its  rivals,  and  nothing  proved  this  more  than  the  fact 

228 


'.     <y£- 


£+t-* 


•    • 


Art^rrt   S 

s> 

4*s-?£^5      £*.,  ^*-+*^4&~-?>l^ 


15* 


REDUCED   FACSIMILE  OF  A   PORTION   OF 

FRANKLIN'S  AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

By  courtesy  of  the  owner,  Hon.  John  Bigelow. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

that  they  stole  from  its  columns.  "  When  Mr.  Bradford 
publishes  after  us,"  the  "Gazette"  told  one  plagiary, 
"  arid  has  Occasion  to  take  an  Article  or  two  out  of  the 
Gazette,  which  he  is  always  welcome  to  do,  he  is  desired 
not  to  date  his  Paper  a  Day  before  ours,  (as  last  Week 
in  the  Case  of  the  Letter  containing  Kelsey's  Speech, 
&c.)  lest  distant  Readers  should  imagine  we  take  from 
him,  which  we  always  carefully  avoid."  Nor  was  this 
the  only  amusement  Franklin  made  out  of  his  rival's 
columns,  and  one  of  his  jokes  was  peculiarly  typical. 
"  As  you  sometimes  take  upon  you  to  correct  the  Pub- 
lick,"  he  made  a  pretended  correspondent,  "  Memory," 
write  to  his  paper,  "  you  ought  in  your  Turn  patiently 
to  receive  publick  Correction.  My  Quarrel  against  you 
is,  your  Practice  of  publishing  under  the  Notion  of  News, 
old  Transactions  which  I  suppose  you  hope  we  have 
forgot.  For  Instance,  in  your  Numb.  669,  you  tell  us 
from  London  of  July  20,  That  the  Losses  of  our  Mer- 
chants are  laid  before  the  Congress  of  Soissons,  by  Mr. 
Stanhope  &c.  and  that  Admiral  Hopson  died  the  8th  of 
May  last.  Whereas  't  is  certain,  there  has  been  no 
Congress  at  Soissons  nor  any  where  else  these  three 
Years  at  least ;  nor  could  Admiral  Hopson  possibly  die 
in  May  last,  unless  he  has  made  a  Resurrection  since 
his  Death  in  1728.  And  in  your  Numb.  670.,  among 
other  Articles  of  equal  Antiquity,  you  tell  us  a  long 
Story  of  a  Murder  and  Robbery  perpetrated  on  the 
Person  of  Mr.  Nath.  Bostock,  which  I  have  read  Word 
for  Word  not  less  than  four  Years  since  in  your  own 
Paper.  Are  these  your  freshest  Advices  foreign  and 
domestick?  I  insist  that  you  insert  this  in  your  next, 

230 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

and  let  us  see  how  you  justify  yourself."     Still  affecting 
to  treat  the  matter  seriously,  Franklin  replied : 

"  I  need  not  say  more  in  Vindication  of  my  self  against  this 
Charge,  than  that  the  Letter  is  evidently  wrong  directed,  and 
should  have  been  To  the  Publisher  of  the  Mercury :  Inasmuch 
as  the  Numb,  of  my  Paper  is  not  yet  amounted  to  669,  nor 
are  those  old  Articles  any  where  to  be  found  in  the  Gazette, 
but  in  the  Mercury  of  the  two  last  Weeks." 

These  girds  bespoke  strained  relations  with  his  fellow- 
editor,  and  there  was  little  love  lost  between  them. 
The  Bradfords  charged  upon  one  occasion  that  Franklin 
had  been  awarded  the  printing  of  the  New  Jersey  colony 
money  for  a  higher  sum  than  was  asked  by  another 
printer,  and  added:  "Its  no  matter,  its  the  Country's 
Money,  and  if  the  Publick  cannot  afford  to  pay  well, 
who  can  ?  Its  proper  to  serve  a  Friend  when  there  is 
an  opportunity."  There  were  other  charges,  too,  of 
one  sort  and  another,  and  countercharges  in  the  "  Ga- 
zette," with  the  advantage  generally  in  Franklin's  favor, 
but  which  did  little  credit  to  either  of  the  disputants. 
Later  in  life  Franklin  came  to  realize  this  fact,  for  from 
Paris  he  wrote  of  American  journalism  to  a  friend : 

"You  do  well  to  avoid  being  concerned  in  the  pieces  of 
personal  abuse,  so  scandalously  common  in  our  newspapers 
that  I  am  afraid  to  lend  any  of  them  here  until  I  have  ex- 
amined and  laid  aside  such  as  would  disgrace  us,  and  subject 
us  among  strangers  to  a  reflection  like  that  used  by  a  gentle- 
man in  a  coffee-house  to  two  quarrellers,  who,  after  a  mutually 
free  use  of  the  words,  rogue,  villain,  rascal,  scoundrel,  etc., 
seemed  as  if  they  would  refer  their  dispute  to  him :  '  I  know 
nothing  of  you,  or  your  affairs,'  said  he  ;  '  I  only  perceive  that 
you  know  one  another' 

"  The  conductor  of  a  newspaper  should,  methinks,  consider 

231 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

himself  as  in  some  degree  the  guardian  of  his  country's  repu- 
tation, and  refuse  to  insert  such  writing  as  may  hurt  it.  If 
people  will  print  their  abuses  of  one  another,  let  them  do  it 
in  little  pamphlets,  and  distribute  them  where  they  think 


THE  YEARLY 

VERSES 

Of  the  Printer's  Lad, 
who  carrrieth  a- 
•  bout  the  tPennJy?- 
vania  GAZETTE, 
to  the  Cuftomer* 
thereof. 

Jan.  I.  1741. 


V  Labour's  done  for  one  unreckon'd  Year, 
And  to  account,  kind  S  I  R,  I  now  appear. 
'Twould  give  Offence,  could  I  the  News  rehcarfr, 
T'  attempt  it  all,  here,  in  my  fcanty  Vcrfc  ; 
Bat  if  th*  important  Parts  are  nam'd  again 
That  ftrike  the  Paffiohs  and  infpire  the  Pen, 
Tho*  Grief,  and  Joy,  and  Anger,  thofe  may  raife, 
And  fome  deferve  Reproach,  and  others  Praiie  ; 
Such  Parts,  by  Cuftom  due,  ye  will  expcft ; 
And  fuch  will  make  the  noble  Mind  reflect. 

Coo    p../7T~1-  '-^nlp  TVimwr -.fin/I  J,er  P/>W;'-  •- 


YEARLY  VERSES   OF   PRINTER'S   LAD  OF  THE 

"  PENNSYLVANIA  GAZETTE." 
In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

proper.  It  is  absurd  to  trouble  all  the  world  with  them  ;  and 
unjust  to  subscribers  in  distant  places,  to  stuff  their  paper  with 
matters  so  unprofitable,  and  so  disagreeable." 


Even  more  severe  was  his  ironical  "  Account  of  the 
Supremest  Court  of  Judicature  in  Pennsylvania,   Viz. 

232 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

The  Court  of  the  Press."  This  court,  he  wrote,  "  may 
receive  and  promulgate  accusations  of  all  kinds  against 
all  persons  and  characters  .  .  .  with  or  without  inquiry 
or  hearing  at  the  courts'  discretion."  It  is  established 
for  the  benefit  of  "  about  one  citizen  in  five  hundred, 
who  can  procure  pen,  ink,  and  paper,  with  a  press,  a  few 
types  and  a  huge  pair  of  BLACKING  balls,"  and  who, 
if  you  make  the  least  complaint  of  his  conduct,  "  daubs 
his  blacking  balls  in  your  face  wherever  he  meets  you ; 
and,  besides  tearing  your  private  character  to  flitters, 
marks  you  out  for  the  odium  of  the  public,  as  an  enemy 
to  the  liberty  of  the  press."  This  five-hundredth  part  of 
the  citizens  have  the  privilege  of  accusing  and  abusing 
the  other  four  hundred  and  ninety-nine  parts  at  their 
pleasure.  In  practice  this  court  "  is  not  governed  by 
any  of  the  rules  of  common  courts  of  law.  The  accused 
is  allowed  no  grand  jury,  .  .  .  nor  is  the  name  of  the 
accuser  made  known  to  him,  nor  has  he  an  opportunity 
of  confronting  the  witnesses  against  him,  .  .  .  nor  is 
there  any  petty  jury  of  his  peers."  Its  "  privileges  flow 
from  what  is  termed  the  liberty  of  the  press,"  which 
Franklin  deemed  to  be  akin  to  "the  liberty  of  the  press 
that  felons  have,  by  the  common  law  of  England,  before 
conviction,  that  is,  to  be  pressed  to  death  or  hanged  "  ; 
and  he  argues  that  if  this  so-called  liberty  consists  in  the 
power  of  "  affronting,  calumniating,  and  defaming  one 
another,  I,  for  my  part,  own  myself  willing  to  part  with 
my  share  of  it  whenever  our  legislators  shall  please  so 
to  alter  the  law,  and  shall  cheerfully  consent  to  exchange 
my  liberty  of  abusing  others  for  \\\z  privilege  of  not  being 
abused  myself."  Failing  this, 

233 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"  My  proposal  then  is,  to  leave  the  liberty  of  the  press  un- 
touched, to  be  exercised  in  its  full  extent,  force,  and  vigor ; 
but  to  permit  the  liberty  of  the  cudgel  to  go  with  \lpari  pa  ssu. 
Thus,  my  fellow-citizens,  if  the  impudent  writer  attacks  your 
reputation,  dearer  to  you  perhaps  than  your  life,  and  puts  his 
name  to  the  charge,  you  may  go  to  him  as  openly  and  break 
his  head.  If  he  conceals  himself  behind  the  printer,  and  you 
can  nevertheless  discover  who  he  is,  you  may  in  like  manner 
waylay  him  in  the  night,  attack  him  behind,  and  giye  him  a 
good  drubbing.  Thus  far  goes  my  project  as  to  private  resent- 
ment and  retribution.  But  if  the  public  should  ever  happen 
to  be  affronted,  as  it  ought  to  be,  with  the  conduct  of  such 
writers,  I  would  not  advise  proceeding  immediately  to  these  ex- 
tremities ;  but  that  we  should  in  moderation  content  ourselves 
with  tarring  and  feathering,  and  tossing  them  in  a  blanket. 

"  If,  however,  it  should  be  thought  that  this  proposal  of 
mine  may  disturb  the  public  peace,  I  would  then  humbly 
recommend  to  our  legislators  to  take  up  the  consideration  of 
both  liberties,  that  of  the  press,  and  that  of  the  cudgel,  and  by 
an  explicit  law  mark  their  extent  and  limits ;  and,  at  the  same 
time  that  they  secure  the  person  of  a  citizen  from  assaults,  they 
would  likewise  provide  for  the  security  of  his  reputation." 

Long  after  Franklin  had  severed  his  interest  in  his 
own  paper,  he  took  pride  that  "  I  lately  heard  a  remark, 
that  on  examination  of  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  for 
fifty  years,  from  its  commencement,  it  appeared  that 
during  that  long  period  scarce  one  libellous  piece  had 
ever  appeared  in  it.  This  generally  chaste  conduct 
...  is  much  to  its  reputation  ;  for  it  has  long  been 
the  opinion  of  sober,  judicious  people,  that  nothing  is 
more  likely  to  endanger  the  liberty  of  the  press  than 
the  abuse  of  that  liberty  by  employing  it  in  personal 
accusation,  detraction,  and  calumny.  The  excesses 
some  of  our  papers  have  been  guilty  of  in  this  particular 
have  set  this  State  in  a  bad  light  abroad,  .  .  .  for  I  have 

234 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 


seen  a  European  newspaper,  in  which  the  editor,  who 
had  been  charged  with  frequently  calumniating  the 
Americans,  justifies  himself  by  saying,  '  that  he  had 


;. ;       'v- .-."      THE  .u-.:; 

i  GENERAL  MAGAZINE, 

AND 

Hiftorical  Chronicle, 

:     For  all  the  Briti/b  Plantations  in  America. 

[To  be  Continued  Monthly.] 
JANUARY,     174  i. 


_. f.i^'l-,  •*  1 

^^W'^M\\> '"-  -i 


I  —JZ^EJZZZI 

PHILADELPHIA.- 

j^        riis-.w:  .a.;  s,.;j  i>>-  D,  I-  P.  .\  N  K  M  N      | 


published  nothing  disgraceful  to  us  which  he  had  not 
taken  from  our  own  printed  papers.'  ' 

Franklin's  share  in  the  "  Gazette  "  was  far  more  than 
gathering  news.  The  editorial  was  a  yet  unknown 
feature  of  journalism,  but  he  often  added  to  his  items 
little  comments  or  explanations.  When  there  was  an 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

empty  column,  he  wrote  an  essay,  letter,  poem,  or  any- 
thing else  to  fill  it.  Forestalling  modern  journalism,  he 
asked  a  question,  and  then  proceeded  to  answer  it  at 
length.  So,  too,  he  propounded  "  questions  in  casuistry," 
and  riddles,  to  his  readers,  and  for  one  of  the  latter  he 
offered  that : 

"  Who  in  good  Verse  explains  me  clear 
Shall  have  this  Gazette,  free,  one  year." 

Finally,  he  composed  the  annual  "  carrier's  address  " 
that  ushered  in  each  new  year. 

Having  made  a  success  of  his  newspaper,  the  editor's 
ambition  expanded,  and  he  conceived  the  scheme  of 
establishing  a  magazine.  Imprudently,  he  confided  the 
idea  to  a  friend  before  he  was  quite  ready  to  begin,  and, 
as  with  his  project  of  a  newspaper,  another  publisher 
heard  of  the  plan,  and  hastened  to  issue  a  prospectus  of 
just  such  a  periodical.  Instead  of  letting  this  interfere, 
Franklin,  while  charging  a  breach  of  confidence,  con- 
tinued his  preparations,  and  after  a  war  of  words  in  the 
press  between  the  two  editors,  the  controversy  settled 
into  a  race  as  to  which  magazine  should  first  appear. 
On  February  13,  1741,  "  The  American  Magazine  "  was 
issued,  and  on  the  i6th  "  The  General  Magazine  "  was 
for  sale,  Franklin  thus  losing,  by  three  days,  the  honor 
of  having  edited  and  published  the  first  monthly  in 
America.  Neither  publication  succeeded,  the  earliest 
in  the  field  dying  with  its  third  number,  with  its  pub- 
lisher not  far  from  bankruptcy,  and  the  second,  after  a  six 
months'  struggle,  ceased  to  appear,  leaving  nothing  but 
a  long  account  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  printer's  ledger. 

236 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

These  years  of  editorship  were  busy  ones  for  Franklin, 
and  kept  his  quill  too  well  employed  to  let  it  produce 
much  besides  what  was  required  for  his  periodicals. 
From  1729  to  1757,  the  few  pieces  he  wrote  which  did 
not  appear  in  one  of  these  publications  were,  with  one 
exception  noted  elsewhere,  wholly  pamphlets  of  occa- 
sion, such  as  his  "Proposals  for  Education"  and  his 
"  Account  of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital."  But  if  he 
produced  nothing  that  can  be  ranked  as  literature  while 
his  paper,  magazine,  and  Almanac  made  such  drafts  on 
his  time,  his  work  in  them  was  teaching  him  all  there 
was  to  be  learned  of  pen-craft.  An  inch  of  space,  or  a 
column,  or  a  page  needed  to  be  filled :  the  printer  left 
his  type-case  and  wrote  something  of  exactly  the  right 
length.  It  is  to  be  questioned  if  any  man  of  letters  ever 
served  so  long  and  so  difficult  an  apprenticeship  as  did 
Franklin  in  his  almost  forty  years  of  editorial  work,  and 
there  is  small  wonder  that  every  year  marked  a  gain  to 
him  in  style  and  facility.  When  he  took  farewell  of 
journalism,  words  had  become  to  him  a  plastic  medium 
which  he  could  model  to  any  shape  his  fancy  chose.  In 
a  generation  which  considered  Johnson's  Latinized 
English  as  the  acme  of  fine  writing,  he  wrote  a  style 
which  has  scarcely  been  equaled  for  its  combination  of 
simplicity  and  clearness.  "  A  Query  "  which  he  wrote 
gives  his  own  standard : 

"  How  shall  we  judge  of  the  goodness  of  a  writing?  Or 
what  qualities  should  a  writing  have  to  be  good  and  perfect  in 
its  kind? 

"  Answer.  To  be  good,  it  ought  to  have  a  tendency  to 
benefit  the  reader,  by  improving  his  virtue  or  his  knowledge. 

237 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

But,  not  regarding  the  intention  of  the  author,  the  method 
should  be  just ;  that  is,  it  should  proceed  regularly  from  things 
known  to  things  unknown,  distinctly  and  clearly  without  con- 
fusion. The  words  used  should  be  the  most  expressive  that 
the  language  affords,  provided  that  they  are  the  most  generally 
understood.  Nothing  should  be  expressed  in  two  words  that 
can  be  as  well  expressed  in  one ;  that  is,  no  synonymes  should 
be  used,  or  very  rarely,  but  the  whole  should  be  as  short  as 
possible,  consistent  with  clearness ;  the  words  should  be  so 
placed  as  to  be  agreeable  to  the  ear  in  reading ;  summarily,  it 
should  be  smooth,  clear,  and  sJiort,  for  the  contrary  qualities 
are  displeasing. 

"  But,  taking  the  query  otherwise,  an  ill  man  may  write  an 
ill  thing  well ;  that  is,  having  an  ill  design,  he  may  use  the 
properest  style  and  arguments  (considering  who  are  to  be 
readers)  to  attain  his  ends.  In  this  sense,  that  is  best  wrote, 
which  is  best  adapted  for  obtaining  the  end  of  the  writer." 

Far  more  than  a  good  style  went  to  make  up  Frank- 
lin's success  as  a  writer.  Poor  Richard  had  distinct 
literary  ease;  he  was  never  at  a  loss  for  an  aphorism, 
simile,  or  story  to  illustrate  or  strengthen  an  argument ; 
could  take  another  man's  idea  and  improve  upon  it ; 
could  refute  a  whole  argument  by  a  dozen  words  scrib- 
bled in  the  margin,  and  imitate  other  and  bygone  styles 
of  writing  at  will.  On  this  facility  he  drew  heavily  as 
he  stepped  into  public  life,  and  some  examples  of  his 
work  will  show  at  once  his  methods  and  his  versatility. 

In  1760  the  colonists  had  reason  to  dread  a  termina- 
tion of  the  French  and  Indian  War  before  the  British 
success  had  made  certain  the  retention  of  Canada.  In- 
stead of  keeping  to  traditional  lines  and  repeating  in  a 
pamphlet  or  squib  the  arguments  that  had  become  by 
repetition  both  hackneyed  and  partizan,  Franklin  made 
his  appeal  in  such  a  way  as  to  avoid  both. 

238 


WRITER    AND   JOURNALIST 

"  I  met  lately  with  an  old  quarto  book  on  a  stall,"  he 
wrote  to  the  editor  of  the  London  "  Chronicle,"  trans- 
lated, so  he  goes  on  to  tell,  from  the  Spanish,  and  a 
certain  chapter  of  this  book  is  "  so  apropos  to  our  pres- 
ent situation  (only  changing  Spain  for  France)  that  I 
think  it  well  worth  general  attention  and  observation, 
as  it  discovers  the  arts  of  our  enemies,  and  may  there- 
fore help  in  some  degree  to  put  us  on  our  guard  against 
them."  Having  thus  convinced  the  reader  that  what- 
ever follows  is  untinctured  by  contemporary  bias,  he  pre- 
tendedly  transcribes  from  the  book  a  chapter,  "  On  the 
Means  of  Disposing  the  Enemie  to  Peace,"  and  by  put- 
ting every  reason  for  ending  the  war  into  the  mouth  of 
an  enemy  of  England,  he  successfully  makes  each  of 
them  seem  inimical  to  that  country.  But  this  master- 
piece of  turning  an  opponent's  own  guns  on  him  could 
only  succeed  if  the  hoax  were  well  enough  done  to 
carry  conviction  of  its  genuineness  to  each  reader.  An 
excerpt  will  illustrate  how  far  the  writer  was  able  to 
accomplish  this : 

"  Warres,  with  whatsoever  Prudence  undertaken,  and  con- 
ducted, do  not  always  succeed.  Many  Thinges  out  of  Man's 
Power  to  governe,  such  as  Dearth  of  Provision,  Tempests, 
Pestilence,  and  the  like,  oftentimes  interfering  and  totally 
overthrowing  the  best  Designes ;  so  that  those  Enemies  (Eng- 
land and  Holland)  of  our  Monarchy  though  apparently  at  first 
the  weaker,  may  by  disastrous  Events  of  Warre,  on  our  Parte, 
become  the  stronger,  and  though  not  in  such  degree  as  to 
endanger  the  Bodie  of  this  great  Kingdom,  yet  by  their  greater 
Power  of  Shipping  and  Aptness  in  Sea  Affairs,  to  be  able  to 
cut  off,  if  I  may  so  speake,  some  of  its  smaller  Limbs  and 
Members  that  are  remote  therefrom  and  not  easily  defended, 
to  wit,  our  Islands  and  Colonies  in  the  Indies ;  thereby  how- 

239 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

ever  depriving  the  Bodie  of  its  wonted  Nourishment,  so  that 
it  must  thenceforthe  languish  and  grow  weake,  if  those  Parts 
are  not  recovered,  which  possibly  may  by  continuance  of 
Warre  be  found  unlikelie  to  be  done.  And  the  Enemie,  puffed 
up  with  their  successes,  and  hoping  still  for  more,  may  not  be 
disposed  to  Peace  on  such  Termes  as  would  be  suitable  to  the 
honor  of  your  Majestie,  and  to  the  Welfare  of  your  State  and 
Subjects.  In  such  Case,  the  following  Meanes  may  have 
good  Effect." 

A  still  cleverer  imposition  was  something  he  wrote  in 
1773.  The  stock  argument  of  the  English  writers  who 
maintained  that  Parliament  possessed  supreme  authority 
over  America  was  that  the  colonists,  had  they  remained 
in  Great  Britain,  would  have  been  absolutely  subject  to 
its  laws,  and  that  emigration  had  not  changed  this  con- 
dition. To  show  the  utter  absurdity  of  the  claim, 
Franklin  drafted  what  purported  to  be  an  edict  of  the 
Prussian  king,  which  began  in  due  form,  "  Frederic  by 
the  Grace  of  God,  King  of  Prussia,  etc,  etc,  etc.,"  and 
then  continued : 

"  Whereas  it  is  well  known  to  all  the  world,  that  the  first 
German  settlements  made  in  the  Island  of  Britain,  were  by 
colonies  of  people,  subject  to  our  renowned  ducal  ancestors, 
and  drawn  from  their  dominions,  under  the  conduct  of  Hengist, 
Horsa,  Hella,  Uffa,  Cerdicus,  Ida,  and  others;  and  that  the 
said  colonies  have  flourished  under  the  protection  of  our  august 
house  for  ages  past ;  have  never  been  emancipated  therefrom  ; 
and  yet  have  hitherto  yielded  little  profit  to  the  same ;"  and 
whereas  we  ourself  have  in  the  last  war  fought  for  and  de- 
fended the  said  colonies,  against  the  power  of  France,  and 
thereby  enabled  them  to  make  conquests  from  the  said  power 
in  America,  for  which  we  have  not  yet  received  adequate 
compensation  ;  and  whereas  it  is  just  and  expedient  that  a 
revenue  should  be  raised  from  the  said  colonies  in  Britain, 
towards  our  indemnification ;  and  that  those  who  are  descen- 

240 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

dants  of  our  ancient  subjects,  and  thence  still  owe  us  due  obedi- 
ence, should  contribute  to  the  replenishing  of  our  royal  coffers 
(as  they  must  have  done,  had  their  ancestors  remained  in  the 
territories  now  to  us  appertaining) ;  we  do  therefore  hereby 
ordain  and  command,  that,  from  and  after  the  date  of  these 
presents,  there  shall  be  levied  and  paid  to  our  officers  of  the 
custojus,  on  all  goods,  wares,  and  merchandises,  and  on  all 
grain  and  other  produce  of  the  earth,  exported  from  the  said 
Island  of  Britain,  and  on  all  goods  of  whatever  kind  imported 
into  the  same,  a  duty  of  four  and  a  half  per  cent  ad  valorem, 
for  the  use  of  us  and  our  successors." 


The  edict,  its  author  affirmed,  was  written  in  "  out- 
of-the-way  "  form,  as  "  most  likely  to  take  the  general 
attention,"  and  in  this  it  was  an  entire  success.  It  was 
printed  in  the  "  Public  Advertiser,"  and  Franklin  wrote 
a  friend  that  he  could  not  send  him  one,  because 
"  though  my  clerk  went  the  next  morning  to  the  prin- 
ter's and  wherever  they  were  sold,"  the  edition  of  the 
paper  had  been  exhausted.  In  consequence,  the  piece 
was  reprinted  by  request  in  a  subsequent  issue,  and  was 
generally  reprinted  in  other  papers  and  in  the  maga- 
zines. "  I  am  not  suspected  as  the  author,"  the  cozener 
told  a  correspondent,  "  except  by  one  or  two  friends ; 
and  we  have  heard  the  latter  spoken  of  in  the  highest 
terms,  as  the  keenest  and  severest  piece  that  has  ap- 
peared here  for  a  long  time.  Lord  Mansfield,  I  hear, 
said  of  it,  that  it  was  very  ABLE  and  very  ARTFUL 
indeed;  and  would  do  mischief  by  giving  here  a  bad 
impression  of  the  measures  of  government ;  and  in  the 
colonies,  by  encouraging  them  in  their  contumacy.  .  .  . 
What  made  it  the  more  noticed  here,  was  that  people 
in  reading  it  were,  as  the  phrase  is,  taken  in,  till  they 
'6  241 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

had  got  half  through  it,  and  imagined  it  a  real  edict,  to 
which  mistake  I  suppose  the  king  of  Prussia's  character 
must  have  contributed."  Of  this  he  relates  an  incident 
which  must  have  delighted  him : 

"  I  was  down  at  Lord  le  Despencer's,  when  the  post  brought 
that  day's  papers.  Mr.  Whitehead  was  there,  too,  (Paul 
Whitehead,  the  author  of  '  Manners,')  who  runs  early  through 
all  the  papers,  and  tells  the  company  what  he  finds  remarkable. 
He  had  them  in  another  room,  and  we  were  chatting  in  the 
breakfast  parlor,  when  he  came  running  in  to  us  out  of  breath, 
with  the  paper  in  his  hand.  '  Here!  '  says  he,  '  here  's  news 
for  ye!  Here  's  the  king  of  Prussia  claiming  a  right  to  this 
kingdom ! '  All  stared,  and  I  as  much  as  anybody ;  and  he 
went  on  to  read  it.  When  he  had  read  two  or  three  para- 
graphs, a  gentleman  present  said :  '  Damn  his  impudence ;  I 
dare  say  we  shall  hear  by  next  post,  that  he  is  upon  his  march 
with  one  hundred  thousand  men  to  back  this.'  Whitehead, 
who  is  very  shrewd,  soon  after  began  to  smoke  it,  and  looking 
in  my  face,  said,  '  I  '11  be  hanged  if  this  is  not  some  of  your 
American  jokes  upon  us.'  The  reading  went  on,  and  ended 
with  abundance  of  laughing,  and  a  general  verdict  that  it  was 
a  fair  hit ;  and  the  piece  was  cut  out  of  the  paper  and  pre- 
served in  my  Lord's  collection." 

Another  incident  which  occurred  at  Lord  Le  De- 
spenser's  serves  to  show  still  another  quality  of  his  skill, 
as  well  as  his  facility  with  his  pen.  "  Dr.  Franklin  told 
me,"  John  Adams  relates,  "  that  before  his  return  to 
America  from  England,  in  1775,  he  was  in  company 
.  .  .  with  a  number  of  English  noblemen,  when  the 
conversation  turned  upon  fables,  those  of  ^Esop,  La 
Fontaine,  Gay,  Moore,  &c.,  &c.  Some  one  of  the  com- 
pany observed  that  he  thought  the  subject  was  ex- 
hausted. He  did  not  believe  that  any  man  could  now 
find  an  animal,  beast,  bird,  or  fish,  that  he  could  work 

242 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

into  a  new  fable  with  any  success ;  and  the  whole  com- 
pany appeared  to  applaud  the  idea,  except  Franklin, 
who  was  silent  The  gentleman  insisted  on  his  opinion. 
He  said,  with  submission  to  their  lordships,  he  believed 
the  subject  was  inexhaustible,  and  that  many  new  and 
instructive  fables  might  be  made  out  of  such  materials. 
Can  you  think  of  any  one  at  present?  If  your  lordship 
will  furnish  me  a  pen,  ink,  and  paper,  I  believe  I  can 
furnish  your  lordship  with  one  in  a  few  minutes.  The 
paper  was  brought,  and  he  sat  down  and  wrote : 

"  '  Once  upon  a  time,  an  eagle  scaling  round  a  farmer's 
barn,  and  espying  a  hare,  darted  down  upon  him  like  a  sun- 
beam, seized  him  in  his  claws,  and  remounted  with  him  in  the 
air.  He  soon  found  that  he  had  a  creature  of  more  courage 
and  strength  than  a  hare,  for  which,  notwithstanding  the 
keenness  of  his  eyesight,  he  had  mistaken  a  cat.  The  snarling 
and  scrambling  of  the  prey  was  very  inconvenient,  and,  what 
was  worse,  she  had  disengaged  herself  from  his  talons,  grasped 
his  body  with  her  four  limbs,  so  as  to  stop  his  breath,  and 
seized  fast  hold  of  his  throat  with  her  teeth.  Pray,  said  the 
eagle,  let  go  your  hold,  and  I  will  release  you.  Very  fine, 
said  the  cat,  I  have  no  fancy  to  fall  from  this  height  and  be 
crushed  to  death.  You  have  taken  me  up,  and  you  shall 
stoop  and  let  me  down.  The  eagle  thought  it  necessary  to 
stoop  accordingly.' 

"  The  moral  was  so  applicable  to  England  and  Amer- 
ica, that  the  fable  was  allowed  to  be  original,  and  highly 
applauded." 

Perhaps  the  ablest  of  all  his  quips  was  a  letter  de- 
signed to  increase  the  odium  of  the  small  German 
princes  who  sold  their  troops  to  Great  Britain  dur- 
ing the  Revolution.  This  purported  to  be  written  by 
one  of  the  potentates  to  his  officer  in  command  in 

244 


WRITER   AND  JOURNALIST 

America.  "  You  cannot  imagine  my  joy,"  the  ruler 
declared,  "on  being  told  that  of  the  1950  Hessians  en- 
gaged in  the  fight  [at  Trenton]  but  345  escaped.  There 
were  just  1605  men  killed,  and  I  cannot  sufficiently 
commend  your  prudence  in  sending  an  exact  list  of  the 
dead  to  my  minister  in  London.  This  precaution  was 
the  more  necessary,  as  the  report  sent  to  the  English 
ministry  does  not  give  but  1455  dead.  This  would 
make  483,450  florins,  instead  of  the  643,500  florins 
which  I  am  entitled  to  demand  under  our  convention. 
You  will  comprehend  the  prejudice  which  such  an  error 
would  make  in  my  finances,  and  I  do  not  doubt  that 
you  will  take  the  necessary  pains  to  prove  that  Lord 
North's  list  is  false  and  yours  correct.  The  court  of 
London  objects  that  there  were  one  hundred  wounded 
who  ought  not  to  be  included  in  the  list,  nor  paid  for  as 
dead ;  but  I  trust  you  will  not  overlook  my  instructions 
to  you  on  quitting  Cassel,  and  that  you  will  not  have 
tried  by  human  succor  to  recall  to  life  the  unfortunates 
whose  days  could  not  be  lengthened  but  by  the  loss  of 
a  leg  or  an  arm.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  you  should 
assassinate  them  ;  we  should  be  humane,  my  dear  Baron, 
but  you  may  insinuate  to  the  surgeons  with  entire 
propriety  that  a  crippled  man  is  a  reproach  to  their 
profession."  Then  Franklin  makes  the  writer  continue  : 

"  I  am  about  to  send  you  some  new  recruits.  Don't  econo- 
mize them.  .  .  .  You  did  right  to  send  back  to  Europe  that 
Dr.  Crumerus  who  was  so  successful  in  curing  dysentery. 
Don't  bother  with  a  man  who  is  subject  to  looseness  of  the 
bowels.  That  disease  makes  bad  soldiers.  One  coward  will 
do  more  mischief  in  an  engagement  than  ten  brave  men  will 
do  good.  Better  that  they  burst  in  their  barracks  than  fly  in 

'6*  245 


S      U      P     P      L     VE      M      E      N      T 

TOTHE    BOSTON 

INDEPENDENT    CHRONICLE. 

BOSTON.  March  .».  !^t?  lint  biw  r.P.  fcritch :  -xc  could  pla, -wit*  than  faftly:  wefnui 


o  fir.d  Wic    the  F*c 


T£2SSSi^5g^ 

km*  People.  ?lwlti(ii 
j  i  ff,;t,,f  thcTu.  Whatever 


Mo.  t.lMmtiAni-S&ift  <t COefuG 

skoai^ifc^fcMebJoe 

a>««;  (be  »Ede .  • 

Scot  to  not;  tv, 

TOW,  Jnllsd  h  -r 
brown.  Mid  ttiti. 
<i.ti«etbei»br 
ia  the  Middle.  I.  • 

'^ESHS 


»WH,hary.fceTe<c»)i«:b»i 


M.-l.nnltfcrlli.i.r.to.' 
of  Fu««. 

with.lirffcy.ow 
fcurw  liirt.'  tfttr  bri 


wa-«  on  it  »or  the  i*ir.  to  ffc-w  'hi 
klltk^u!l«-r:aik  oo  Court.  Hatch. 

No.+.Cont.^f  j^nf  Fn^aiwl, 


i 


'    W^^'b^k^^.^S,^ 


iW  Hail  to^Mw  bern  • 

•  ;JW^ffiSJ2rJ^.^?*I5^*-f 

• ;  Mr j  K  Sciifsof  Hanoi  j  H.ir  J™,  .fcr,;<W  in 

N>"  Hc^-jiptiin  bt-m-i  Colwif ;  no  M«rk  iirtitfli 
or  Ct&r-te,  to  ft-*-  th»  wen  kuoclttd  *,-»•,! 
!V?'«  Bnlrrtrif  cut. 


piffcttfemftft !  -    '.-"V)  wltlihS 

I VPM  £M  Bo«oa,  and  will  rrobably  bs tkot hi  i  few 

^  ™'*SA.M  UJE C  CT«  RtSH. 

I  anivcii  hsre  Uv-utmant  FitrrrraW  abonnentioficd, 
'  ih:  «'arpin  with  ike  Seal:  i.  ^hvttak  of  Ptopfc 


T   Have  latciv  fcen  a  memorial,  (,\\A  ro  h«*e  been    pre" 

lEi,%r»M»r'd'    'tntc<i  ^  >o?r  rirc!teKy'°thc't  W'  MiKhtirrfiv.  the 

.  '\:      t:  i  *.i:L  of  firjtf?  ~ * 

"'J^  'ciy  to  all  mankind  3.  It  happens,  Sir,  that  l«jn  an  enerttv 

X.i'rfUCOTfk                                               Bluwirfr  to  nsj  pan;oCn»tt)Und...«xtepf  yAor  nation;  the  Eni;!ilh'; 

'na4^i*a«£i^wi£  »?Wiwit5         "  '        •  *''-lh  ''""""  "  t! '  '"-:  :"'nc  I'';T'C>  rl :'''  " '"''  **  »  -l'' 

i"'-r.     >^     :                       '      ^  •'  •      •'  .  oefiniaon ;  being  aftmBjr  »  enemy  to,  and  at  war  vikfc, 

:;ulare»-nB«ttv&i!M.t)utjMin«ff«>fcu»nbiiao  one TBole  quarter  oftheworkl,  America,  tooft«le~1J-  — 

**•        '  ofAfia  and  Africa,  a  ^rett  part  of  Europe,  aa*J  h 

»''        .            *•  -  P*  beWK  at  TAr  wjtii  the  reft. 


', 


i 


***Jf*t  to  f»y  :  a.  it  alhoa  of  auck    ..  uacJ  fata.    v      *  *I1S-  ^ 
jt*W*«^«re=aar,«'<!tl»^»,wrm    •*^Jg'1 

•fotr^!;r  !:koyn.r|  Pa.»-hr-  :  •K-ylo^tc..-     tl?)t!'»  *  P'«G«!  *'4f  : 


M«.  Thi: 
iii  defence  of  liberty ....  the  moft  juft  of  «11  van  ;  and 


FRANKLIN'S  FICTITIOUS  NKUSI-ATLR. 

From  the  copy  in  the  Congressional  Library,  Washington. 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

a  battle,  and  tarnish  the  glory  of  our  arms.  Besides,  you 
know  that  they  pay  me  as  killed  for  all  who  die  from  disease, 
and  I  don't  get  a  farthing  for  runaways.  My  trip  to  Italy, 
which  has  cost  me  enormously,  makes  it  desirable  that  there 
should  be  a  great  mortality  among  them.  You  will  therefore 
promise  promotion  to  all  who  expose  themselves ;  you  will 
exhort  to  seek  glory  in  the  midst  of  dangers ;  you  will  say  to 
Major  Maundorff  that  I  am  not  at  all  content  with  his  saving 
the  345  men  who  escaped  the  massacre  at  Trenton.  Through 
the  whole  campaign  he  has  not  had  ten  men  killed  in  conse- 
quence of  his  orders.  Finally,  let  it  be  your  principal  object 
to  prolong  the  war  and  avoid  a  decisive  engagement  on  either 
side,  for  I  have  made  arrangements  for  a  grand  Italian  opera, 
and  I  do  not  wish  to  be  obliged  to  give  it  up." 

A  greater  imposition  still  was  something  he  did,  in 
1782,  in  an  endeavor  to  make  Europe  appreciate  the 
horrors  of  another  British  mode  of  warfare.  On  his 
private  press  at  Passy  he  struck  off  a  fictitious  news- 
paper, purporting  to  be  a  supplement  of  the  Boston 
"  Chronicle,"  filled  with  certain  evidence  which  he 
wished  to  get  before  the  public.  Chief  of  these  was  an 
account  of  the  capture  of  a  large  quantity  of  scalps  from 
the  Indians  in  English  pay,  which  had  been  made  up  in 
eight  packs,  "cured,  dried,  hooped  and  painted,"  pre- 
paratory to  sending  them  as  a  gift  to  George  III.  With 
them  was  an  invoice  of  each  package,  of  which  the  fol- 
lowing are  examples : 

"  No.  4.  Containing  one  hundred  and  two  of  farmers,  mixed 
of  the  several  marks  above ;  only  eighteen  marked  with  a  little 
yellow  flame,  to  denote  their  being  of  prisoners  burnt  alive, 
after  being  scalped,  their  nails  pulled  out  by  the  roots,  and 
other  torments ;  one  of  these  latter  supposed  to  be  a  rebel 
clergyman,  his  band  being  fixed  to  the  hoop  of  his  scalp.  Most 
of  the  farmers  appear  by  the  hair  to  have  been  young  or 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

middle-aged  men  ;  there  being  but  sixty-seven  very  gray  heads 
among  them  all ;  which  makes  the  service  more  essential. 

"  No.  5.  Containing  eighty-eight  scalps  of  women ;  hair 
long,  braided  in  the  Indian  fashion,  to  show  they  were  mothers  ; 
hoops  blue ;  skins  yellow  ground,  with  little  red  tadpoles,  to 
represent,  by  way  of  triumph,  the  tears  of  grief  occasioned  to 
their  relations  ;  a  black  scalping-knife  or  hatchet  at  the  bottom, 
to  mark  their  being  killed  with  these  instruments.  Seventeen 
others,  hair  very  gray ;  black  hoops ;  plain  brown  color ;  no 
mark,  but  the  short  club  or  casse-tete,  to  show  they  were 
knocked  down  dead,  or  had  their  brains  beat  out." 

After  this  gruesome  description  in  the  paper,  almost 
as  if  to  show  the  literary  versatility  of  the  man,  comes 
a  pretended  letter  from  John  Paul  Jones  to  the  British 
minister  at  The  Hague.  In  a  moment  of  temper  the 
diplomat  had  termed  the  naval  officer  "  a  pirate,"  and  it 
was  too  good  a  chance  for  Franklin  not  to  seize  upon. 
"  A  pirate,"  the  Englishman  was  told,  "  is  defined  to 
be  Jiostis  humani  generis  (an  enemy  to  all  mankind). 
It  happens,  Sir,  that  I  am  an  enemy  to  no  part  of  man- 
kind, except  your  nation,  the  English;  which  nation,  at 
the  same  time,  comes  much  more  within  the  definition, 
being  actually  an  enemy  to,  and  at  war  with,  one  whole 
quarter  of  the  world.  ...  A  pirate  makes  war  for  the 
sake  of  rapine.  This  is  not  the  kind  of  war  I  am  en- 
gaged in  against  England.  Ours  is  a  war  in  defence  of 
liberty,  the  most  just  of  all  wars;  and  of  QWC  properties, 
which  your  nation  would  have  taken  from  us,  without 
our  consent,  in  violation  of  our  rights,  and  by  an  armed 
force.  Yours,  therefore,  is  a  war  of  rapine;  of  course  a 
piratical  war;  and  those  who  approve  of  it,  and  are 
engaged  in  it,  more  justly  deserve  the  name  of  pirates, 
which  you  bestow  on  me."  Following  this  letter  came 

248 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

a  number  of  minor  paragraphs,  and  even  advertisements, 
all  intended  to  give  verisimilitude. 

"Enclosed  I  send  you  a  few  copies  of  a  paper,"  Franklin 
wrote  to  a  friend,  "  that  places  in  a  striking  light,  the  English 
barbarities  in  America,  particularly  those  committed  by  the 
savages  at  their  instigation.  The  FORM  may  perhaps  not  be 
genuine,  but  the  substance  is  truth  ;  the  number  of  our  people  of 
all  kinds  and  ages  murdered  and  scalped  by  them  being  known 
to  exceed  that  of  the  invoices.  Make  any  use  of  them  you 
may  think  proper  to  shame  your  Anglomanes,  but  do  not  let 
it  be  known  through  what  hand  they  come." 

For  once  the  fraud  was  too  well  done,  and  Franklin 
overreached  himself  by  the  very  ability  of  his  philippic 
against  the  ambassador.  "  Have  you  seen  in  the  papers 
an  excellent  letter  by  Paul  Jones  to  Sir  Joseph  York?  " 
asked  Horace  Walpole  of  a  correspondent.  "  Elle  nous 
dit  bien  des  veritcs.  I  doubt  poor  Sir  Joseph  cannot 
answer  them !  Dr.  Franklin  himself,  I  should  think, 
was  the  author.  It  is  certainly  from  a  first-rate  pen, 
and  not  a  common  man-of-war."  This  was  the  judg- 
ment, however,  of  a  skilled  critic,  and  the  supplement 
was  generally  accepted  as  genuine. 

It  was  not  his  contemporaries  alone  whom  Franklin 
deceived  by  the  cleverness  of  his  art.  While  acting  as 
agent  in  London  for  a  number  of  the  colonies,  he  was 
compelled,  if  he  wished  their  interests  to  receive  the 
slightest  attention,  to  dance  attendance  at  the  levees ; 
but  he  put  his  disgust  at  a  system  of  business  based  on 
personal  influence  and  corruption  into  one  of  the  sever- 
est pieces  of  irony  he  ever  penned.  "  It  is  now  more 
than  one  hundred  and  seventy  years  since  the  translation 
of  our  common  English  Bible,"  he  began  a  paper  which 

249 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

he  entitled  "  Proposed  New  Version  of  the  Bible. "  "  The 
language  in  that  time  is  much  changed,"  he  continues, 
"  and  the  stile  being  obsolete,  and  thence  less  agreeable, 
is  perhaps  one  reason  why  the  reading  of  that  excellent 
book  is  of  late  so  much  neglected.  I  have  therefore 
thought  it  would  be  well  to  procure  a  new  version,  in 
which,  preserving  the  sense,  the  turn  of  phrase  and 
manner  of  expression  should  be  modern.  I  do  not  pre- 
tend to  have  the  necessary  abilities  for  such  a  work 
myself ;  I  throw  out  the  hint  for  the  consideration  of  the 
learned :  and  only  venture  to  send  you  a  few  verses  of 
the  first  chapter  of  Job,  which  may  serve  as  a  sample  of 
the  kind  of  version  I  would  recommend." 

Then  followed  seven  paraphrased  verses,  which,  with- 
out the  least  change  of  substance,  were,  by  a  mere 
change  of  words,  made  to  become  a  savage  satire  on  the 
monarchical  system  of  government.  Yet  such  was  the 
skill  with  which  it  was  written  that  the  editor  to  whom 
it  was  sent  printed  it  in  good  faith  as  a  genuine  pro- 
posal, and  it  has  since  been  frequently  cited  as  a  serious 
endeavor  of  its  author.  Thus  one  of  his  recent  biog- 
raphers devotes  three  pages  to  abuse  of  the  travesty, 
writing : 

"  When  age  and  experience  should  have  taught  him  better, 
he  ...  made  a  paraphrase  of  a  chapter  of  Job.  In  no  book, 
it  is  safe  to  say,  is  the  force  and  beauty  of  the  English  tongue 
so  finely  shown  as  in  King  James's  Bible.  But  on  Franklin 
that  force  and  beauty  were  wholly  lost.  The  language  he 
pronounced  obsolete.  The  style  he  thought  not  agreeable, 
and  he  was  for  a  new  rendering  in  which  the  turn  of  phrase 
and  manner  of  expression  should  be  modern.  .  .  .  The  plan 
is  beneath  criticism.  Were  such  a  piece  of  folly  ever  begun, 
there  would  remain  but  one  other  depth  of  folly  to  which  it 

250 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

would  be  possible  to  go  down.  Franklin  proposed  to  fit  out 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  with  lords,  nobles,  a  ministry,  and 
levee  days.  It  would  on  the  same  principle  be  proper  to  make 
another  version  suitable  for  republics.  .  .  .  Nor  would  he 
have  hesitated  to  make  such  a  version.  The  Bible  was  to  him 
in  no  sense  a  book  for  spiritual  guidance.  .  .  .  Hence  it  was 
that  the  first  chapter  of  Job  taught  him  nothing  but  a  lesson 
in  politics." 

Something  Matthew  Arnold  wrote  is  still  more 
amusing: 

"  I  remember  the  relief  with  which,  after  long  feeling  the 
sway  of  Franklin's  imperturbable  common  sense,  I  came  upon 
a  project  of  his  for  a  new  version  of  the  Book  of  Job,  to  replace 
the  old  version,  the  style  of  which,  says  Franklin,  has  become 
obsolete,  and  thence  less  agreeable.  '  I  give/  he  continues, 
'  a  few  verses,  which  may  serve  as  a  sample  of  the  kind  of 
version  I  would  recommend.'  We  all  recollect  the  famous 
verse  in  our  translation :  '  Then  Satan  answered  the  Lord, 
and  said,  Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought?  '  Franklin  makes 
this,  '  Does  your  Majesty  imagine  that  Job's  good  conduct  is 
the  effect  of  mere  personal  attachment  and  affection?  '  I 
well  remember  how  when  first  I  read  that  I  drew  a  deep 
breath  of  relief,  and  said  to  myself,  '  After  all,  there  is  a  stretch 
of  humanity  beyond  Franklin's  victorious  good  sense.'  The 
lover  of  literary  curiosities  may  be  almost  sorry  that  Franklin's 
proposal  never  got  any  further." 

It  is  a  pity  that  Franklin  could  not  read  both  these 
judgments,  for  no  one  would  have  enjoyed  such  "  literary 
curiosities  "  more,  and  that  he  should  have  successfully 
deceived  biographers  and  critics  is  only  a  further  monu- 
ment to  his  cleverness  in  letters. 

Franklin  attempted  a  far  more  difficult  piece  of  bib- 
lical revision,  however,  than  a  paraphrase  of  Job,  by 
rewriting  the  Lord's  Prayer.  His  draft,  which  has  been 

251 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

strangely  overlooked  by  his  editors  and  biographers, 
though  imperfect,  gives  reasons  for  each  suggested 
change,  too  long  to  be  included  here,  though  most 
interesting.  The  text  of  the  prayer,  as  far  as  extant, 
was : 

"  Heavenly  Father.  May  all  revere  thee.  And  become  thy 
dutiful  Children  and  faithful  Subjects.  May  thy  Laws  be 
obeyed  on  Earth  as  perfectly  as  they  are  in  Heaven.  Provide 
for  us  this  Day  as  thou  hast  hitherto  daily  done.  Forgive  us 
our  Trespasses,  and  enable  us  likewise  to  forgive  those  that 
offend  us.  Keep  us  out  of  Temptation." 

How  far  Franklin  deemed  the  style  of  the  Bible  obso- 
lete and  unagreeable  is  shown  by  another  literary  joke. 
He  found  in  a  book  of  Jeremy  Taylor's  a  parable  teach- 
ing the  toleration  he  was  so  constantly  advocating,  and 
was  so  charmed  with  the  moral,  "  well  worth  being  made 
known  to  all  mankind,"  that  he  rewrote  it  in  Scripture 
language,  and  printing  off  a  few  copies,  kept  one  laid  in 
his  Bible.  In  time  he  came  to  know  what  he  called 
"  Genesis  LI."  so  well  as  to  need  no  text,  and  one  of  his 
pleasures  was  "  reading  it  by  heart  out  of  my  Bible,  and 
obtaining  the  remarks  of  the  Scriptuarians  upon  it,  which 
were  sometimes  very  diverting."  This  amusement  was 
finally  ended  by  one  of  his  friends,  Lord  Kames,  who 
had  persuaded  Franklin  to  give  him  a  copy,  printing  it, 
"without  my  consent,"  in  his  "  History  of  Man,"  and 
so  giving  it  general  circulation. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  from  this  accenting  of  his 
sleight  of  pen  that  Franklin  spent  his  time  in  literary 
legerdemain.  From  the  time  he  retired  from  active 
printing  and  journalism  he  was  a  prolific  scribbler,  both 

252 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 


of  newspaper  articles  and  of  pamphlets,  on  all  subjects 
he  was  interested  in,  which  owed  their  influence  to  force 
of  argument  rather  than  to  their  form  or  turn  of  phrase. 
Poor  Richard  said  : 

"A  ...   they  say  has  wit  :  for  what? 
For  writing?  —  No,  —  for  writing  not." 


. 

—  r 

'"'"•    ! 

i.  And  it  came   to   pafs   after   theft 

do  not  worfhip  thy  God,  neither  do  I  call 

things,  that  Abraham  fat  in  the  door  of 

.pen  his  name;  -for  I  have   made    to 

his  tent,  about  the  going  down  of  th«  fun. 

myfelf  a  god,  which  abideth  alway.  in 

i.  And  behold  a  man  bent  with  age. 
coming  from  the  way  of  the  wildernefc 
leaning  on  a  flaff. 

mine  houfe,  and  provideth  me  with    all 
8.  And  Abrahams  zeal  wu  kindled  a- 

3.  And  Abraham  arofe,  and  met  him. 

gainft  the  man,  and  he  arofe,   and  HI 

J 

and  raid  unto  him.  Turn  in.  I  pray  thee. 
and  wafh  thy  feet,  and  tarry  all  night;  and 

upon  him.  and  drove  him  forth  with  blows 
•into  the  wildernefs. 

thou  (halt  arhe  early  in  the  morning,  and 

o.  And  Cod  called  unto  Abraham,  fay- 

go  on  thy  way. 

ing,  Abraham,  where  is  the  fjranger  > 

4.  And  the  man  laid.  Nay  :  for  I  will  a- 

10.  And  Abraham  anfwered  and  faid. 

bide  under  this  tree. 

Lord,  be  would  not  worfhip  thee,  >  neither 

5.  But  Abraham  preffed  him  greatly: 

would  he  call  upon  thy  name;  therefore 

fb  he  turned,  and  they  went  into  the  tent  : 
and  Abraham  balced  unleavened   bread. 

have  I  driven  him  out  from  before  my 
face  into  the  wildernefi. 

and  they  did  eat 

1  1.  And  God  faid.  Have  I  borne  with 

1    ; 

{                                    6.  And  when  Abraham  faw  that  the 
man  bleffed  not  God.  he  faid  unto  him. 

him  thefc  hundred  and  ninety  and  eight 
years,  and  nourilhed  him,  and  cloathed 

Wherefore  doft  thou  not  worfhip  the  mofl 
high  God.  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth  ? 
7.  And  the  nun  anfwered  and  faid.  1 

him,  notwithfcuiding  his  rebellion  againft 
me  ;  and  couldfl  not  thou,  who  art  thyfelf 
a  fmner,  bear  with  him  one  night  ? 

i 

[                - 

1 

FRANKLIN'S  FICTITIOUS  CHAPTER  OF  THE  BIBLE,  USUALLY  STYLED 

A  PARABLE  AGAINST  PERSECUTION. 
In  the  possession  of  the  author. 

But  his  creator  was  a  living  denial  of  the  lines,  for, 
judged  by  the  product,  his  pen  seems  never  to  have 
been  idle.  He  not  merely  wrote  himself,  but  utilized 
the  writings  of  others.  During  his  long  and  bitter  con- 
tests in  Pennsylvania  politics  he  wrote  many  squibs  and 
pamphlets  of  a  strongly  partizan  nature,  and  he  was 

253 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

charged  by  an  opponent  with  having  encumbered  the 
minutes  of  the  Assembly  with  "a.  load  of  scurrilous 
messages  of  your  own  drawing,  and  .  .  .  long  reports 
put  together  from  law  books,  old  histories  and  jour- 
nals." In  his  service  as  agent  in  England  from  1764 
to  1775,  he  caused  every  important  American  pamphlet 
to  be  republished  in  London,  usually  adding  a  preface  of 
his  own.  In  Paris  he  was  instrumental  in  starting  a 
periodical  that  should  disseminate  news  of  the  Revolu- 
tion untinctured  by  British  prejudice.  He  saw  to  it 
that  certain  periodicals  employed  writers  friendly  to  the 
American  cause,  and  encouraged  other  men  to  write. 
His  long  experience  had  taught  him  the  value  of  the 
press,  and  in  every  contest  in  which  he  took  a  share 
he  used  it  to  its  fullest  extent. 

"  The  ancient  Roman  and  Greek  orators,"  he  remarked, 
"  could  only  speak  to  the  number  of  citizens  capable  of  being 
assembled  within  the  reach  of  their  voice.  Their  writings  had 
little  effect,  because  the  bulk  of  the  people  could  not  read. 
Now  by  the  press  we  can  speak  to  nations,  and  good  books 
and  well  written  pamphlets  have  great  and  general  influence. 
The  facility  with  which  the  same  truths  may  be  repeatedly 
enforced  by  placing  them  daily  in  different  lights  in  news- 
papers, which  are  everywhere  read,  gives  a  great  chance  of 
establishing  them.  And  we  now  find  that  it  is  not  only  right 
to  strike  while  the  iron  is  hot,  but  that  it  may  be  very  prac- 
ticable to  heat  it  by  continually  striking." 

Unquestionably  his  best  work,  in  a  literary  sense, 
were  what  he  himself  termed  "  bagatelles,"  being  little 
essays  written  during  his  years  in  France,  and  never 
destined  for  publication,  but  solely  for  the  amusement 
of  the  little  circle  of  intimates  he  drew  about  him,  and 

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WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

in  some  cases  composed  for  the  entertainment  of  a  single 
invalid  of  whom  he  was  particularly  fond.  In  this  way 
were  produced  "  The  Whistle,"  "  The  Ephemera," 
"  The  Morals  of  Chess,"  "  The  Dialogue  with  the  Gout," 
and  "The  Handsome  and  Deformed  Leg,"  each  of 
which,  in  its  own  way,  has  rarely  been  excelled  in  its 
combination  of  the  two  elements  which  go  to  make  the 
best  literature — wisdom  of  thought  and  charm  of  form. 
One  peculiarity  of  this  pen-activity  was  his  endeavor  to 
avoid  being  the  draftsman  of  public  papers.  In  his  long 
political  service  he  could  not  help  but  prepare  one  occa- 
sionally, yet  whenever  possible  he  left  it  for  others  to 
do ;  and  though  he  was  unquestionably  the  foremost 
writer  of  his  country  during  his  lifetime,  not  one  really 
famous  document  was  framed  by  him.  His  reasons  for 
this  policy  were  given  to  Jefferson,  under  circumstances 
that  made  them  peculiarly  interesting : 

"  When  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  under  the 
consideration  of  Congress,  there  were  two  or  three  unlucky 
expressions  in  it  which  gave  offence  to  some  members.  The 
words  'Scotch  and  other  foreign  auxiliaries'  excited  the  ire 
of  a  gentleman  or  two  of  that  country.  Severe  strictures  on 
the  conduct  of  the  British  king,  in  negativing  our  repeated 
repeals  of  the  law  which  permitted  the  importation  of  slaves, 
were  disapproved  by  some  Southern  gentlemen,  whose  reflec- 
tions were  not  yet  matured  to  the  full  abhorrence  of  that 
traffic.  Although  the  offensive  expressions  were  immediately 
yielded,  these  gentlemen  continued  their  depredations  on 
other  parts  of  the  instrument.  I  was  sitting  by  Dr.  Franklin, 
who  perceived  that  I  was  not  insensible  to  these  mutilations. 
'  I  have  made  it  a  rule,'  said  he,  '  whenever  in  my  power,  to 
avoid  becoming  the  draughtsman  of  papers  to  be  reviewed  by 
a  public  body.  I  took  my  lesson  from  an  incident  which  I 
will  relate  to  you.  When  I  was  a  journeyman  printer,  one  of 

255 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

my  companions,  an  apprentice  hatter,  having  served  out  his 
time,  was  about  to  open  shop  for  himself.  His  first  concern 
was  to  have  a  handsome  sign-board,  with  a  proper  inscription. 
He  composed  it  in  these  words,  "John  Thompson,  Hatter, 
makes  and  sells  hats  for  ready  money,"  with  a  figure  of  a  hat 
subjoined  ;  but  he  thought  he  would  submit  it  to  his  friends  for 
their  amendments.  The  first  he  showed  it  to  thought  the  word 
"  Hatter"  tautologous,  because  followed  by  the  words  "  makes 
hats"  which  show  he  was  a  hatter.  It  was  struck  out.  The 
next  observed  that  the  word  "  makes  "  might  as  well  be  omitted, 
because  his  customers  would  not  care  who  made  the  hats.  If 
good  and  to  their  mind,  they  would  buy,  by  whomsoever 
made.  He  struck  it  out.  A  third  said  he  thought  the  words 
"for  ready  money"  were  useless,  as  it  was  not  the  custom  of  the 
place  to  sell  on  credit.  Every  one  who  purchased  expected  to 
pay.  They  were  parted  with,  and  the  inscription  now  stood, 
"John  Thompson  sells  hats."  "Sells  hats"  says  his  next 
friend!  "Why  nobody  will  expect  you  to  give  them  away, 
what -then  is  the  use  of  that  word?  "  It  was  stricken  out,  and 
"  hats  "  followed  it,  the  rather  as  there  was  one  painted  on  the 
board.  So  the  inscription  was  reduced  ultimately  to  "  John 
Thompson"  with  the  figure  of  a  hat  subjoined.'  ' 

In  objecting  to  submit  his  writings  to  criticism  of  this 
kind,  Franklin's  sense  of  humor  was  too  strong  not  to 
get  amusement  out  of  the  author's  undue  valuation  of 
his  own  work.  "  I  have  of  late  fancy'd  myself  to  write 
better  than  ever  I  did,"  he  told  a  friend  who  jocosely 
asserted  that  his  judgment  was  on  the  decline,  "  and, 
farther,  that  when  any  thing  of  mine  is  abridged  in  the 
papers  or  magazines,  I  conceit  that  the  abridger  has 
left  out  the  very  best  and  brightest  parts.  These,  my 
friend,  are  much  stronger  proofs,  and  put  me  in  mind 
of  Gil  Bias's  patron,  the  homily-maker."  More  seriously 
he  complained  of  a  London  editor,  who,  for  party  rea- 
sons, made  corrections  and  omissions  in  one  of  his  pieces. 

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WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

4<  He  has  drawn  the  teeth  and  pared  the  nails  of  my 
paper,  so  that  it  can  neither  scratch  nor  bite,"  Franklin 
grumbled.  "  It  seems  only  to  paw  and  mumble."  Yet 
he  welcomed  true  criticism,  and  in  reply  to  such  a  one 
from  David  Hume,  he  wrote : 

"  I  thank  you  for  your  friendly  admonition  relating  to  some 
unusual  words  in  the  pamphlet.  It  will  be  of  service  to  me. 
The  'pejorate]  and  the  'colonize]  since  they  are  not  in  com- 
mon use  here,  I  give  up  as  bad ;  for  certainly  in  writings 
intended  for  persuasion  and  for  general  information,  one  can- 
not be  too  clear ;  and  every  expression  in  the  least  obscure  is 
a  fault.  The  '  unshakeable '  too,  though  clear,  I  give  up  as 
rather  low.  The  introducing  new  words,  where  we  are  already 
possessed  of  old  ones  sufficiently  expressive,  I  confess  must 
be  generally  wrong,  as  it  tends  to  change  the  language ;  yet, 
at  the  same  time,  I  cannot  but  wish  the  usage  of  our  tongue 
permitted  making  new  words,  when  we  want  them,  by  com- 
position of  old  ones  whose  meanings  are  already  well  under- 
stood. The  German  allows  of  it,  and  it  is  a  common  practice 
with  their  writers.  Many  of  our  present  English  words  were 
originally  so  made ;  and  many  of  the  Latin  words.  In  point 
of  clearness,  such  compound  words  would  have  the  advantage 
of  any  we  can  borrow  from  the  ancient  or  from  foreign  lan- 
guages. For  instance,  the  word  inaccessible,  though  long  in 
use  among  us,  is  not  yet,  I  dare  say,  so  universally  understood 
by  our  people,  as  the  word  uncomeatable  would  immediately  be, 
which  we  are  not  allowed  to  write.  But  I  hope,  with  you, 
that  we  shall  always  in  America  make  the  best  English  of  this 
Island  our  standard,  and  I  believe  it  will  be  so.  I  assure  you 
it  often  gives  me  pleasure  to  reflect  how  greatly  the  audience  (if 
I  may  so  term  it)  of  a  good  English  writer  will,  in  another 
century  or  two,  be  increased  by  the  increase  of  English  people 
in  our  colonies." 

This  shrewd  estimate  of  the  future  value  of  an 
American  public  to  British  writers  he  discussed  more  at 
length  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  Strahan,  the  publisher, 

257 


WILLIAM   FRANKLIN,    ELDER   SON    OF   BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN. 

After  a  pencil  drawing  by  Albert  Rosenthal  from  the  original  painting, 
the  property  of  Dr.  Thomas  Hewson  Bache. 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

"  By  the  way,"  he  informed  him,  "  the  rapid  growth 
and  extension  of  the  English  language  in  America  must 
become  greatly  advantageous  to  the  booksellers  and 
holders  of  copyrights  in  England.  A  vast  audience  is 
assembling  there  for  English  authors,  ancient,  present, 
and  future,  our  people  doubling  every  twenty  years; 
and  this  will  demand  large  and  of  course  profitable  im- 
pressions of  your  most  valuable  books.  I  would,  there- 
fore, if  I  possessed  such  rights,  entail  them,  if  such  a 
thing  be  practicable,  upon  my  posterity  ;  for  their  worth 
will  be  continually  augmenting.  This  may  look  a  little 
like  advice,  and  yet  I  have  drunk  no  madeira  these  six 
months."  What  Franklin  did  not  conceive  was  that 
American  authors  and  publishers  would  in  time  reverse 
the  process  and  profit  by  the  English  reader;  yet  had  it 
been  possible  for  him  to  entail  the  copyright  of  Poor 
Richard  and  his  autobiography  on  his  own  descendants, 
they  would  have  been  made  rich  by  the  wide  sale  of 
these  two  books  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries. 

The  autobiography,  the  most  famous  of  all  his  writings, 
is  of  peculiar  interest,  not  merely  as  a  story  of  his  life, 
but  because  it  is  his  only  real  endeavor  to  write  a  book. 
It  was  begun  in  1771,  during  a  visit  with  his  friend 
Bishop  Shipley  at  Twyford,  and,  as  originally  planned, 
was  merely  a  letter  to  his  son,  William  Franklin,  that  he 
might  "  learn  the  circumstances  of  my  life."  Other 
occupations  compelled  him  to  lay  it  aside  when  it  had 
been  brought  down  only  to  1731.  Left  in  Philadelphia 
with  his  papers  when  Franklin  sailed  for  France,  the 
manuscript,  in  the  turmoil  of  the  Revolution,  was  actu- 
ally thrown  into  the  street,  where  by  good  chance  it  was 

259 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

found  by  an  old  friend,  who  was  so  charmed  by  a  read- 
ing that  he  begged  Franklin  to  complete  it.  In  com- 
pliance with  the  wish,  a  few  pages  were  added  in  1784, 
which  mark  a  complete  change  of  plan ;  for  the  aliena- 
tion from  his  son  had  meantime  come,  and  so  the  work 
was  no  longer  a  personal  communication,  meant  for  one 
eye  only,  but  was  now  written  with  publication  in  mind. 
Accordingly,  its  author  sought  to  ingraft  a  second  book 
on  the  story  of  his  life.  From  the  year  1732  Franklin 
"  had  had  in  mind  a  little  work  for  the  benefit  of  youth, 
to  be  called  The  Art  of  Virtue"  which  he  described  to 
Lord  Kames  as  follows : 

"  From  the  title  I  think  you  will  hardly  conjecture  what  the 
nature  of  such  a  book  may  be.  I  must  therefore  explain  it  a 
little.  Many  people  lead  bad  lives  that  would  gladly  lead 
good  ones,  but  do  not  know  how  to  make  the  change.  They 
have  frequently  resolved  and  endeavour'd  it,  but  in  vain, 
because  their  endeavours  have  not  been  properly  conducted. 
To  expect  people  to  be  good,  to  be  just,  to  be  temperate,  &c. 
without  showing  them  how  they  should  become  so,  seems  like 
the  ineffectual  chanty  mentioned  by  the  Apostle,  which  con- 
sists in  saying  to  the  hungry,  the  cold,  and  the  naked,  '  Be  ye 
fed,  be  ye  warmed,  be  ye  clothed '  without  showing  them  how 
they  should  get  food,  fire  and  clothing." 

In  resuming  the  autobiography,  therefore,  to  "  shorten 
the  work  as  well  as  for  other  reasons  I  omit  all  facts  that 
might  not  have  a  tendency  to  benefit  the  young  reader 
by  showing  him  from  my  example  and  my  success  in 
emerging  from  poverty  and  acquiring  some  degree  of 
wealth,  power,  and  reputation  the  advantages  of  certain 
modes  of  conduct,  which  I  observed,  and  avoiding  the 
errors  which  were  prejudicial  to  me."  It  was  this  mo- 

260 


WRITER   AND   JOURNALIST 

tive  which  induced  Franklin  to  write  with  extraordinary 
frankness  of  the  mistakes  of  his  youth ;  and  every 
"  erratum "  which  he  told  in  the  autobiography  was 
described,  not  because  he  took  any  pleasure  in  cata- 
loguing his  own  failings,  but  in  the  hope  that  it  might 
be  of  benefit  in  saving  others  from  similar  slips.  In  the 
next  few  years  Franklin,  urged  by  his  friends,  worked 
at  the  book  ;  but  his  time  was  heavily  mortgaged  to  the 
public,  and  when  at  last  leisure  came,  he  found  that  the 
gout  and  stone  were  faster  workers  than  the  man,  and 
they  wrote  "finis"  to  the  real  life  when  that  on  paper 
had  passed  over  only  a  little  more  than  half  its  story. 

To  judge  Franklin  from  the  literary  standpoint  is 
neither  easy  nor  quite  fair.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that 
as  a  philosopher,  as  a  statesman,  and  as  a  friend  he 
owed  much  of  his  success  to  his  ability  as  a  writer. 
His  letters  charmed  all,  and  made  his  correspondence 
eagerly  sought.  His  political  arguments  were  the  joy 
of  his  party  and  the  dread  of  his  opponents.  His  scien- 
tific discoveries  were  explained  in  language  at  once  so 
simple  and  so  clear  that  plow-boy  and  exquisite  could 
follow  his  thought  or  his  experiment  to  its  conclusion. 
Yet  he  was  never  a  literary  man  in  the  true  and  com- 
mon meaning  of  the  term.  Omitting  his  uncompleted 
autobiography  and  his  scientific  writings,  there  is  hardly 
a  line  of  his  pen  which  was  not  privately  or  anonymously 
written,  to  exert  a  transient  influence,  fill  an  empty 
column,  or  please  a  friend.  The  larger  part  of  his  work 
was  not  only  done  in  haste,  but  never  revised  or  even 
proof-read.  Yet  this  self-educated  boy  and  busy, 
practical  man  gave  to  American  literature  the  most 

'7*  26l 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

popular  autobiography  ever  written,  a  series  of  political 
and  social  satires  that  can  bear  comparison  with  those 
of  the  greatest  satirists,  a  private  correspondence  as  read- 
able as  Walpole's  or  Chesterfield's;  and  the  collection 
of  Poor  Richard's  epigrams  has  been  oftener  printed  and 
translated  than  any  other  production  of  an  American  pen. 

"  If  you  would  not  be  forgotten, 
As  soon  as  you  are  dead  and  rotten, 
Either  write  things  worth  reading, 
Or  do  things  worth  the  writing," 

advised  the  Almanac-maker,  and  his  original  did  both. 
Yet  Franklin  himself  asserted : 

"  He  that  can  compose  himself,  is  wiser  than  he  that  com- 
poses books." 


y"  ~**X  x£  ^i^-^ 

ji. 


FACSIMILE  OF   EPITAPH    IX    KRAXKLIX'S   HANDWRITING. 
262 


ONE  OF  THK  FLAGS  OF  TMK   PENNSYLVANIA   "  ASSOCIATORS,"    1747- 
Designed  by  Franklin  and  made  by  the  women  of  Philadelphia. 


VII 
RELATIONS   WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

AT  fourteen  years  of  age,  so  Franklin  relates,  he  en- 
±1-  gaged  in  a  controversy  with  another  boy  on  "  the 
propriety  of  educating  the  female  sex  in  learning,  and 
their  abilities  for  study,"  his  opponent  maintaining  "that 
it  was  improper,  and  that  they  were  naturally  unequal 
to  it,"  while  Benjamin  "took  the  contrary  side,  perhaps 
a  little  for  disputes  sake."  Two  years  later,  when  com- 
posing the  letters  of  Mrs.  Dogood,  he  wrote  one  in 
defense  of  women,  in  reply  to  a  request  of  "  Ephraim 
Censorious  "  that  the  author  of  those  essays  should  "  Let 
the  first  Volley  of  your  Resentment  be  directed  against 
Female  Vice ;  let  Female  Idleness,  Ignorance  and  Folly 
...  be  the  Subject  of  your  satyrs,  but  more  especially 
Female  Pride,  which  I  think  is  intollerable."  "  I  find  it 
a  very  difficult  Matter,"  the  embryo  philosopher  replied, 

263 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"  to  reprove  Women  separate  from  the  Men,  for  what 
vice  is  there  in  which  the  Men  have  not  as  great  a  share 
as  Women?"  Moreover,  he  argued,  such  faults  as  the 
sex  have  are  chiefly  due  to  men.  Idleness?  "  If  a  man 
will  be  so  fond  and  so  foolish  as  to  labour  hard  himself 
for  a  Livelihood,  and  suffer  his  Wife  in  the  mean  Time 
to  sit  in  Ease  and  Idleness,  let  him  not  blame  her  if  she 
does  so,  for  it  is  in  a  great  Measure  his  own  Fault." 
Ignorance  and  folly  ?  The  fault  is  "  wholly  on  the  Men, 
for  not  allowing  Women  the  Advantages  of  Education." 
Pride  ?  "  Truly,  if  Women  are  proud,  it  is  certainly  owing 
to  the  Men  still ;  for  if  they  will  be  such  Simpletons  as 
to  humble  themselves  at  their  Feet,  and  fill  their  credu- 
lous Ears  with  extravagant  Praises  of  their  Wit,  Beauty, 
and  other  Accomplishments  .  .  .  what  Wonder  is  it, 
if  they  carry  themselves  haughtily  and  live  extrava- 
gantly? " 

As  befitted  her  pen-name,  Mrs.  Dogood  devoted  much 
space  to  the  consideration  of  feminine  affairs.  One  of 
her  letters  treats  "  of  the  lamentable  Condition  of 
Widows,"  and  suggests  for  their  benefit  a  mutual  insur- 
ance that  shall  give  to  every  married  woman  five  hun- 
dred pounds  on  the  death  of  her  husband.  Another 
discusses  the  sad  lot  of  the  maid  who,  "  being  puffed  up 
in  her  younger  Years  with  a  numerous  Train  of  Humble 
Servants,  had  the  Vanity  to  think,  that  her  extraordi- 
nary Wit  and  Beauty  could  continually  recommend  her 
to  the  Esteem  of  the  Gallants,"  but  has  seen  her  rejected 
swains,  to  "  all  Appearance  in  a  dying  Condition,"  re- 
cover their  health  and  marry,  and  who,  "  disappointed 
in  and  neglected  by  her  former  Adorers,"  and  with  "  no 

264 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

new  Offers  appearing,"  begs  the  writer  "  to  form  a  Proj- 
ect for  the  Relief  of  all  those  penitent  Mortals  of  the 
Fair  Sex,  that  are  like  to  be  punished  with  their  Vir- 
ginity, until  old  Age,  for  the  Pride  and  Insolence  of 
their  Youth."  Showing  no  favor  to  her  own  condition, 
the  widow  suggests  a  "  Friendly  Society  "  that  shall  pay 
to  each  member,  when  the  age  of  thirty  is  attained,  five 
hundred  pounds,  which  sum  she  deems  sufficient  to  fit 
each  with  a  husband  ;  but  she  adds  that  this  premium 
shall  be  subject  to  the  condition  that  "  No  woman,  who 
after  claiming  and  receiving,  has  had  the  good  Fortune 
to  marry,  shall  entertain  any  Company  with  Encomiums 
on  her  Husband,  above  the  Space  of  one  Hour  at  a 
Time."  A  third  article,  picturing  Boston  at  night,  de- 
scribes still  another  class  of  feminine  unfortunates,  of 
whom  the  sixteen-year-old  lad  might  better  have  been 
ignorant. 

One  has  but  to  read  Fielding  or  Smollett  to  know 
that  the  eighteenth  century  was  a  poor  school  for  the 
learning  of  moral  purity ;  and  the  runaway  prentice, 
separated  from  home  and  parents,  had  fewer  influences 
than  most  to  save  him  from  adopting  the  view  of  the 
times  that  human  appetites  were  given  to  man  for  his 
enjoyment,  and  that  their  gratification  was  a  venial  fault 
at  most.  In  the  years  of  wandering  which  followed  his 
leaving  Boston,  he  himself  frankly  confesses  that  his 
"  hard-to-be-governed  passion  of  youth  hurried  "  him 
"  frequently  into  intrigues  with  low  women  that  fell  in  " 
his  "  way  "  ;  and  he  probably  had  his  own  transgressions 
in  mind  when,  a  few  years  later,  in  a  newspaper  essay, 
he  bespoke  a  charitable  judgment  of  such  weakness, 

269 


DR.    BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN. 
From  a  painting  by  D.  Martin.     Property  of  the  Earl  of  Stanhope. 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

arguing  in  behalf  of  the  abstract  offender  that  "  your 
Youth,  your  Inexperience,  the  Weakness  of  your  Reason, 
and  the  Violence  of  your  Passions  all  plead  strongly  for 
you."  As  he  grew  in  years  and  wisdom,  Franklin  set 
himself  to  conquer  his  own  nature  in  this  failing,  as  in 
others ;  but  struggle  as  he  would,  his  physique  was 
stronger  than  his  will :  through  all  his  life  he  never  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  himself  to  his  own  standard,  and 
Poor  Richard  could  speak  wittingly  when  he  asserted 
that  "The  proof  of  gold  is  fire:  the  proof  of  woman, 
gold  :  the  proof  of  man,  a  woman."  Yet,  though  this 
incontinence  was  a  matter  of  common  knowledge,  and 
was  recurrently  used  as  a  subject  of  attack  in  political 
campaigns,  his  own  generation,  both  men  and  women, 
deemed  him  a  moral  man,  whose  friendship  was  an 
honor ;  and  it  is  unfair  to  judge  him  by  standards  that 
did  not  exist  at  the  time  he  lived,  or  to  hold  his  other 
virtues  in  disrespect  because  he  lacked  this  one. 

The  roving  period  of  his  journeyman  life  over,  no 
sooner  was  he  settled  in  Philadelphia  than  he  looked 
about  in  search  of  a  helpmeet;  for,  according  to  Poor 
Richard,  "  A  man  without  a  wife  is  but  half  a  man"; 
a  view  enlarged  upon  by  Franklin  when  he  wrote  a 
young  friend  :  "  It  is  the  man  and  woman  united  that 
make  the  compleat  human  being.  Separate,  she  wants 
his  force  of  body  and  strength  of  reason ;  he,  her  soft- 
ness, sensibility,  and  acute  discernment.  Together  they 
are  more  likely  to  succeed  in  the  world.  A  single  man 
has  not  nearly  the  value  he  would  have  in  the  state  of 
union.  He  is  an  incompleat  animal.  He  resembles  the 
odd  half  of  a  pair  of  scissors.  If  you  get  a  prudent, 

267 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

healthy  wife,  your  industry  in  your  profession,  with  her 
good  economy,  will  be  a  fortune  sufficient."  In  the 
same  vein  and  almost  in  the  same  words,  even  to  his 
somewhat  questionable  comparison  of  matrimony  to  a 
pair  of  scissors,  he  told  another : 

"  The  married  state  is,  after  all  our  jokes,  the  happiest,  be- 
cause conformable  to  our  natures.  Man  and  woman  have 
each  of  them  qualities  and  tempers,  in  which  the  other  is 
deficient,  and  which  in  union  contribute  to  the  common  feli- 
city. Single  and  separate,  they  are  not  the  complete  human 
being ;  they  are  like  the  odd  halves  of  scissors :  they  cannot 
answer  the  end  of  their  formation." 

Favorably  as  the  young  printer  thought  of  the  insti- 
tution of  wedlock,  he  allowed  little  sentiment  to  enter 
into  his  own  suits.  He  had  leased  the  upper  part  of  his 
printing-office  to  a  family  of  the  name  of  Godfrey,  in 
turn  boarding  with  them,  and,  in  womanly  fashion, 

"  Mrs.  Godfrey  projected  a  match  for  me  with  a  relation's 
daughter,  took  opportunities  of  bringing  us  often  together, 
till  a  serious  courtship  on  my  part  ensu'd,  the  girl  being  in 
herself  very  deserving.  The  old  folks  encourag'd  me  by 
continual  invitations  to  supper,  and  by  leaving  us  together, 
till  at  length  it  was  time  to  explain.  Mrs.  Godfrey  manag'd 
our  little  treaty.  I  let  her  know  that  I  expected  as  much 
money  with  their  daughter  as  would  pay  off  my  remaining 
debt  for  the  printing-house,  which  I  believe  was  then  above 
a  hundred  pounds.  She  brought  me  word  they  had  no  such 
sum  to  spare  ;  I  said  they  might  mortgage  their  house  in  the 
loan-office.  The  answer  to  this,  after  some  days,  was,  that 
they  did  not  approve  the  match.  .  .  .  Whether  this  was  a  real 
change  of  sentiment  or  only  artifice,  on  a  supposition  of  our 
being  too  far  engaged  in  affection  to  retract,  and  therefore 
that  we  should  steal  a  marriage,  which  would  leave  them  at 
liberty  to  give  or  withhold  what  they  pleas'd,  I  know  not ; 

268 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

but  I  suspected  the  latter,  resented  it,  and  went  no  more. 
Mrs.  Godfrey  brought  me  afterward  some  more  favorable 
accounts  of  their  disposition,  and  would  have  drawn  me  on 
again  ;  but  I  declared  absolutely  my  resolution  to  have  nothing 
more  to  do  with  that  family.  This  was  resented  by  the  God- 
freys ;  we  differ'd,  and  they  removed,  leaving  me  the  whole 
house,  and  I  resolved  to  take  no  more  inmates." 

"This  affair,"  Franklin  continues  calmly,  "  having 
turned  my  thoughts  to  marriage,  I  look'd  round  me  and 
made  overtures  of  acquaintance  in  other  places ;  but 
soon  found  that,  the  business  of  a  printer  being  generally 
thought  a  poor  one,  I  was  not  to  expect  money  with  a 
wife,  unless  with  such  a  one  as  I  should  not  otherwise 
think  agreeable."  His  empty  rooms,  too,  no  doubt 
were  a  persuasive ;  for  though  Poor  Richard  advised 
that  one  "  Never  take  a  wife  till  you  have  a  house  (and 
a  fire)  to  put  her  in,"  he  also  maintained  that  "A  house 
without  a  woman  and  firelight,  is  like  a  body  without 
soul  and  spirit."  Disappointed  in  his  several  courtships, 
he  turned  to  one  whom  he  had  already  wooed  and  won. 

Over  four  years  before  these  abortive  attempts,  on 
the  day  of  his  first  arrival  in  Philadelphia,  the  runaway 
apprentice,  unkempt  and  unwashed  from  the  journey, 
and  with  "  three  great  puffy  rolls,"  one  under  each  arm, 
and  eating  a  third,  had  walked  "  up  Market-street  as 
far  as  Fourth-street,  passing  by  the  door  of  Mr.  Read, 
my  future  wife's  father;  when  she,  standing  at  the  door, 
saw  me,  and  thought  I  made,  as  I  certainly  did,  a  most 
awkward,  ridiculous  appearance."  Presently,  after  he 
had  secured  work  with  Keimer,  he  took  lodgings  at  Mr. 
Read's,  and  propinquity  thus  favoring,  he  "  made  some 
courtship  during  this  time  to  Miss  Read." 

269 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"  I  had,"  he  states,  "  a  great  respect  and  affection  for  her,  and 
had  some  reason  to  believe  she  had  the  same  for  me ;  but,  as 
I  was  about  to  take  a  long  voyage,  and  we  were  both  very 
young,  only  a  little  above  eighteen,  it  was  thought  most 
prudent  by  her  mother  to  prevent  our  going  too  far  at  pres- 
ent, as  a  marriage,  if  it  was  to  take  place,  would  be  more 
convenient  after  my  return,  when  I  should  be,  as  I  expected, 
set  up  in  my  business.  Perhaps,  too,  she  thought  my  expecta- 
tions not  so  well  founded  as  I  imagined  them  to  be." 

Once  in  London,  Franklin  says :  "  I  forgot  by  de- 
grees, my  engagements  with  Miss  Read,  to  whom  I 
never  wrote  more  than  one  letter,  and  that  was  to  let  her 
know  I  was  not  likely  soon  to  return."  This  was,  as  he 
candidly  owned  when  older,  "  another  of  the  great  errata 
of  my  life,  which  I  would  wish  to  correct  if  I  were  to 
live  it  over  again."  He  acknowledged,  too,  that  when, 
eighteen  months  later,  he  returned,  and  established  him- 
self in  Philadelphia,  "  I  should  have  been  .  .  .  asham'd 
at  seeing  Miss  Read,  had  not  her  friends,  despairing 
with  reason  of  my  return  after  the  receipt  of  my  letter, 
persuaded  her  to  marry  another,  one  Rogers,  a  potter, 
which  was  done  in  my  absence.  With  him,  however, 
she  was  never  happy,  and  soon  parted  from  him,  refus- 
ing to  cohabit  with  him  or  bear  his  name,  it  being  now 
said  that  he  had  another  wife.  He  was  a  worthless 
fellow,  tho'  an  excellent  workman,  which  was  the  temp- 
tation to  her  friends.  He  got  into  debt,  ran  away  in 
1727  or  1728,  went  to  the  West  Indies,  and  died  there." 

Despite  Franklin's  ill  treatment  of  them,  there  was 
no  rupture,  and  "  a  friendly  correspondence  as  neighbors 
and  old  acquaintances  had  continued  between  me  and 
Mr.  Read's  family,  who  all  had  a  regard  for  me  from 

270 


MRS.    DEKORAH    FRANKLIN 
After  the  portrait  in  possession  of  Rev.  F.  I».  Hodge,  D.  D.,  Wilkesbarre,  Penn. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

the  time  of  my  first  lodging  in  their  house.  I  was  often 
invited  there  and  consulted  in  their  affairs,  wherein  I 
sometimes  was  of  service."  Thus  drawn  into  the  family 
circle, 

"  I  piti'd  poor  Miss  Read's  unfortunate  situation,  who  was 
generally  dejected,  seldom  cheerful,  and  avoided  company. 
I  considered  my  giddiness  and  inconstancy  when  in  London 
as  in  a  great  degree  the  cause  of  her  unhappiness,  tho'  the 
mother  was  good  enough  to  think  the  fault  more  her  own  than 
mine,  as  she  had  prevented  our  marrying  before  I  went  thither, 
and  persuaded  the  other  match  in  my  absence.  Our  mutual 
affection  was  revived,  but  there  were  now  great  objections  to 
our  union.  The  match  was  indeed  looked  upon  as  invalid,  a 
preceding  wife  being  said  to  be  living  in  England ;  but  this 
could  not  easily  be  prov'd,  because  of  the  distance ;  and,  tho' 
there  was  a  report  of  his  death  it  was  not  certain.  Then, 
tho'  it  should  be  true,  he  had  left  many  debts,  which  his  suc- 
cessor might  be  call'd  upon  to  pay." 

An  escape  from  these  difficulties  was  found  in  a  com- 
mon-law marriage,  and  Franklin  "took  her  to  wife" 
September  i,  1730.  "  None  of  the  inconveniences  hap- 
pened that  we  had  apprehended ;  she  proved  a  good 
and  faithful  helpmate,  assisted  me  much  by  attending 
shop;  we  throve  together,  and  have  ever  mutually  en- 
deavor'd  to  make  each  other  happy.  Thus  I  corrected 
that  great  erratum  as  well  as  I  could."  Long  years 
after  Mrs.  Franklin's  death,  her  husband  bore  testimony 
to  the  aid  she  had  been  to  him,  telling  a  young  girl : 
"  Frugality  is  an  enriching  virtue  ;  a  virtue  I  never  could 
acquire  myself;  but  I  was  once  lucky  enough  to  find  it 
in  a  wife,  who  thereby  became  a  fortune  to  me.  Do 
you  possess  it?  If  you  do,  and  I  were  twenty  years 
younger,  I  would  give  your  father  one  thousand  guineas 

272 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

for  you.  I  know  you  would  be  worth  more  to  me  as  a 
menagere,  but  I  am  covetous,  and  love  good  bargains." 
Win  a  prudent  wife,  the  printer  said,  and  "  if  she  does 
not  bring  a  fortune,  she  will  help  to  make  one.  Indus- 
try, frugality  and  prudent  economy  in  a  wife  are  to  the 
tradesman  in  their  effect  a  fortune."  When  his  daughter 
married  a  shopkeeper,  the  father  advised  her  that  she 
could  be  as  serviceable  to  her  husband  in  keeping  shop 
"  as  your  Mother  was  to  me:  for  you  are  not  deficient 
in  capacity,  and  I  hope  are  not  too  proud."  Elsewhere 
he  wrote  : 

"We  have  an  English  proverb  that  says,  'He  that  would 
thrive,  must  ask  his  wife'  It  was  lucky  for  me  that  I  had  one 
as  much  dispos'd  to  industry  and  frugality  as  myself.  She 
assisted  me  cheerfully  in  my  business,  folding  and  stitching 
pamphlets,  tending  shop,  purchasing  old  linen  rags  for  the 
paper-makers,  etc.,  etc.  We  kept  no  idle  servants,  our  table 
was  plain  and  simple,  our  furniture  of  the  cheapest.  For 
instance,  my  breakfast  was  a  long  time  bread  and  milk  (no 
tea),  and  I  ate  it  out  of  a  twopenny  earthen  porringer,  with  a 
pewter  spoon.  But  mark  how  luxury  will  enter  families,  and 
make  a  progress,  in  spite  of  principle :  being  call'd  one  morn- 
ing to  breakfast,  I  found  it  in  a  China  bowl,  with  a  spoon  of 
silver!  They  had  been  bought  for  me  without  my  knowledge 
by  my  wife,  and  had  cost  her  the  enormous  sum  of  three-and- 
twenty  shillings,  for  which  she  had  no  other  excuse  or  apology 
to  make,  but  that  she  thought  her  husband  deserv'd  a  silver 
spoon  and  China  bowl  as  well  as  any  of  his  neighbors.  This 
was  the  first  appearance  of  plate  and  China  in  our  house, 
which  afterward,  in  a  course  of  years,  as  our  wealth  increas'd, 
augmented  gradually  to  several  hundred  pounds  in  value." 

In  Stamp  Act  times  the  husband  took  comfort  in  the 
recollection  "  that  I  had  once  been  clothed  from  head  to 
foot  in  woolen  and  linen  of  my  wife's  manufacture,  that 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

I  never  was  prouder  of  my  dress  in  my  life,  and  that  she 
and  her  daughter  might  do  it  again  if  it  was  necessary." 
There  can  be  no  question  that  Deborah  Franklin  was 
far  more  to  her  husband  than  a  good  helpmeet,  for  a 
very  great  affection  developed  between  the  two.  In 
an  absence  Franklin  declared  that "  I  began  to  think  of 
and  wish  for  home ;  and  as  I  drew  nearer,  I  found  the 
attraction  stronger  and  stronger.  My  diligence  and 
speed  increased  with  my  inclination.  I  drove  on  vio- 
lently, and  made  such  long  stretches,  that  a  very  few 
days  brought  me  to  my  own  house  and  to  the  arms  of 
my  good  old  wife."  When  in  England  he  told  her: 

"  You  may  think,  perhaps,  that  I  can  find  many  amusements 
here  to  pass  the  time  agreeably.  It  is  true,  the  regard  and 
friendship  I  meet  with  from  persons  of  worth,  and  the  con- 
versation of  ingenious  men,  give  me  no  small  pleasure  ;  but,  at 
this  time  of  life,  domestic  comforts  afford  the  most  solid  satis- 
faction, and  my  uneasiness  at  being  absent  from  my  family, 
and  longing  desire  to  be  with  them,  make  me  often  sigh  in  the 
midst  of  cheerful  company." 

Again  he  wrote:  "Mv  DEAR  LOVE:— I  hoped  to 
have  been  on  the  sea  in  my  return  by  this  time ;  but 
find  I  must  stay  a  few  weeks  longer,  perhaps  for  the 
summer  ships.  Thanks  to  God,  I  continue  well  and 
hearty ;  and  I  hope  to  find  you  so,  when  I  have  the 
happiness  once  more  of  seeing  you." 

One  form  in  which  this  love  expressed  itself  was  in 
the  gifts  they  made  each  other  during  the  years  they 
were  separated.  How  Mrs.  Franklin  sent  her  husband 
apples,  buckwheat,  and  other  American  goodies  has 
already  been  recorded,  and  he  made  ample  return  for 

274 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

them.  Busy  as  the  colony  agent  was  in  his  sojourns  in 
London,  he  found  time  to  select  and  ship  remembrances 
of  many  kinds  to  his  wife.  Thus  he  notified  her  that  "  I 
sent  my  dear  a  newest  fashioned  white  hat  and  cloak,  and 
sundry  little  things,  which  I  hope  will  get  safe  to  hand. 
I  now  send  her  a  pair  of  buckles,  made  of  French  paste 
stones,  which  are  next  in  lustre  to  diamonds."  Again 
he  informed  her: 

"  I  have  ordered  two  large  print  Common  Prayer  books  to 
be  bound,  on  purpose  for  you  and  Goody  Smith ;  and,  that 
the  largeness  of  the  print  may  not  make  them  too  bulky,  the 
christenings,  matrimonies,  and  every  thing  else  that  you  and 
she  have  not  immediate  and  constant  occasion  for,  are  to  be 
omitted.  So  you  will  both  of  you  be  reprieved  from  the  use 
of  spectacles  in  church  a  little  longer." 

Of  another  gift  he  wrote :  "  My  poor  cousin  Walker, 
in  Buckinghamshire,  is  a  lacemaker.  She  was  ambitious 
of  presenting  you  and  Sally  with  some  netting  of  her 
work,  but  as  I  knew  she  could  not  afford  it,  I  chose  to 
pay  for  it  at  her  usual  price,  36  per  yard.  It  goes  also 
in  the  box."  He  even  noted  the  fashions,  and  to  help 
her  to  be  in  style,  "  sent  a  striped  cotton  and  silk  gown 
for  you,  of  a  manufacture  now  much  the  mode  here. 
There  is  another  for  Sally.  People  line  them  writh  some 
old  silk  gown,  and  they  look  very  handsome."  Of  one 
present  he  said :  "  I  also  forgot  among  the  china,  to 
mention  a  large  fine  jug  for  beer,  to  stand  in  the  cooler. 
I  fell  in  love  with  it  at  first  sight ;  for  I  thought  it  looked 
like  a  fat  jolly  dame,  clean  and  tidy,  with  a  neat  blue 
and  white  calico  gown  on,  good  natured  and  lovely,  and 
put  me  in  mind  of  somebody." 

275 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

As  they  sent  each  other  numerous  gifts,  so,  too,  they 
wrote  each  other  frequently,  and  Franklin  boasted  that 
"  I  think  nobody  ever  had  more  faithful  correspondents 
than  I  have  in  Mr.  Hughes  and  you.  It  is  impossible 
to  get  or  keep  out  of  your  debts."  Nor  was  he  himself 
neglectful,  for  he  told  her  once :  "  I  know  you  love  to 
have  a  line  from  me  by  every  packet,  so  I  write,  though 
I  have  little  to  say."  Despite  this  care,  the  irregularities 
of  the  mails  produced  chidings  that  bespoke  her  eager- 
ness for  news  of  him.  "  Aprill  7  this  day  is  Cumpleet 
5  munthes  senes  you  lefte  your  one  House  I  did  reseve 
a  letter  from  the  Capes  senes  that  not  one  line  I  due 
supose  that  you  did  write  by  the  packit  but  that  is  not 
arived  yit."  And  again  she  complained:  "  I  have  bin 
verey  much  distrest  aboute  [you]  as  I  did  not  [get]  oney 
letter  nor  one  word  from  you  nor  did  I  hear  one  word 
from  oney  bodey  that  you  wrote  to  so  I  muste  submit 
and  indever  to  submit  to  what  I  am  to  bair."  .Their 
correspondence,  too,  never  failed  to  express  strong 
affection.  Franklin  usually  began  his,  "  My  Dear 
Child,"  or  "  My  Dear  Love,"  and  concluded,  "  I  am 
ever,  my  dear  Debby,  your  affectionate  husband," 
varied  at  times  by  "  I  am,  dear  girl,  your  loving  hus- 
band," a  formula  which  was  so  customary  that  he  ended 
thus  one  letter  which  had  taken  her  to  task  for  not 
writing,  and  then,  in  a  postscript,  he  added  :  "  I  have 
scratched  out  the  loving  words,  being  writ  in  haste  by 
mistake  when  I  forgot  I  was  angry."  In  return  her 
letters  opened,  "  My  dear  child,"  and  even  "  My  Dearest 
Dear  Child,"  and  were  signed,  "  I  am,  my  dear  child, 
your  ffeckshonot  wife,"  which  was  occasionally  modified 

276 


N  O  W  all  Men  by  thefe 


i  have  conftituted,  made  and  appointed,  and  by  thefe  Prcj^to  do  conftitute, 
make  and  appoint  my  trufty  and  loving  H**nd  jlfife'<3t$£n&£ 

&ntttJ[.&n     6~&e      -          -       •» my  true  and  law 

ful  Attorney,  for  me  and  in  my  Name  and  Stead,  and  to  my  Ufc,  topsk, 
demand,  fuc  for,  levy,  recover  and  receive  all  fuch  Sum  and  Sums  of  Money}* 
Debts,  Rents,  Goods,  Wares,  Dues,  Accounts,  and  other  Demands  whatfo- A^ 

.  ever,  which  are  or  feall  be  due,  owing,  payatfe  and  belonging  to  mc,for     "/ 
detained  from  me  any  Manner*  of  Ways  orA£eahs,whatfoe\scr  by  ^a&fty.      ^ 

^-^*  .  k    .  X?  *          XI  '  ^~*  X*  *  /* 

rt      .  \ 


Giving  and  Granting  unto  my  faid  Attorney,  by  thefe  Prefcnts,  my  full  and 
•whole  Powers,  Strength  and  Authority,  in  and  about  the  Premifles,  to  have, 
ufe  and  take  all  lawful  Ways  and  Means  in  my  Name,  for  the  Recovery  there- 
of; and  upon  the  Receipt  of  any  fuch  Debtt,  Dues  or  Sums  of  Money  aforer 

,.f^Acqutec^QjLg|b^^^  my  Name,  to 

make,  feal  and  deliver  ;  and  generally  all  and  every  other  Aft  and  A£rs,Thirig 
and  Things,  Device  or  Devices  in  the  Law  whatfoever,  needful  and  neceflary  to 
be  done  in  and  about  the  Premifles,  for  me  and  in  my  Name  to  do,  execute  and 
perform,  as  folly,  largely  and  amply,  to  all  Intents  and  Purpofes,  as  I  my  felf  • 
might  or  could  do,  if  I  was  pcrlbnally  prelent,  or  as  if  the  Matter  required  more 
fpecial  Authority  than  is  herein  given;  and  Attorneys  one  or  more  under  ftr 

:  for  the  Putpofe  aforefaid,  to  make  and  conftitute,   and  again  at  Pleafure  to 
revoke  ;  ratifying,  allowing  and  holding  for  firm  and  efic&ual  all  and  what- 
foever my  faid  Attorney  flull  lawfully  do  in  and  about  the  Premifes,  by  Vir- 
tue hereof.     INWITNtSS  Whereof  I  have  hereunto  fet  my  Hand  and 
' 


Year  of  His  Majefty's  Reign,   Amoqae  Domini  One  Tho'ufahd  Seven  Hun- 
-4t*±**A  Thiny  /fata->     ,   •.    ^  '  -..,-. 

Sealed  and  Delivered  i» 


*  ..-    ..J 

Vhila&lfbia:  Printed  and  Sold  at  the  Mm  Printing-Office  near  the  A&ris*;      { 
where  may  be  had  all  Sorts  of  B  L  A  N  K  S.  ~ ./ 


POWER    OF  ATTORNEY  TO   DEBORAH    FRANKLIN. 
18*  In  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

in  orthography  to  "  I  am  your  afeckshonet  wife."  "  I 
set  down  to  confab  a  little  with  my  dear  child,"  she 
began  one  missive ;  and  she  ended  another,  "  Adue  my 
dear  child  and  take  care  of  your  selef  for  mameys  sake 
as  well  as  your  one."  Yet  a  third  begged  he  "  wold  tell 
me  hough  your  poor  armes  was  and  hough  you  was  on 
your  voiag  and  hough  you  air  and  everey  thing  is  with 
you  wich  I  want  verey  much  to  know  "  ;  and  she  told 
him  that  she  joined  with  him  "  in  senser  thanks  to  god 
for  your  presevevoashon  and  Safe  a  rivel  o  what  reson 
have  you  and  I  to  be  thankful  for  maney  mercy  we 
have  reseved." 

One  element  of  discord  there  was,  for  which  Mrs. 
Franklin  can  hardly  be  blamed.  Although  she  allowed 
her  husband  to  bring  his  illegitimate  son  into  their  home, 
and  helped  to  rear  him,  she  conceived  so  strong  a  dislike 
for  him  that  on  one  occasion  she  termed  him  "  the  great- 
est Villain  on  Earth,"  and  expressed  her  feeling,  so  an 
eye-witness  reports,  with  "  Invectives,  in  the  foulest 
terms  I  ever  heard  from  a  Gentlewoman."  This  led 
presently,  when  the  son  was  old  enough,  to  his  father 
arranging  for  him  to  live  elsewhere.  In  time  the  rela- 
tions became  more  friendly,  Mrs.  Franklin  went  to  visit 
William,  and  the  father  was  able  to  write  to  his  wife  :  "  I 
am  very  glad  you  go  sometimes  to  Burlington.  The 
harmony  in  our  family  and  among  our  children  gives 
me  great  pleasure."  So,  too,  his  son  told  him  that  he 
and  his  wife  were  "  on  a  visit  to  my  mother,"  and 
his  letters  to  her  were  subscribed,  "  Your  ever  dutiful 
son."  When  she  died,  he  followed  the  body  "  as  chief 
mourner,"  and  that  this  was  not  a  mere  form  was 

278 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

shown  by  his  letter  to  his  father,  in  which  he  speaks 
of  her  tenderly  as  "  my  poor  old  mother." 

Franklin  has  been  criticized  for  leaving  his  wife  in 
America  during  his  two  long  agencies  in  Great  Britain  ; 
but  if  blame  there  is,  Mrs.  Franklin  should  bear  it,  her 
dread  of  the  passage  being  the  real  bar.  In  his  first 
visit  to  London,  his  friend  William  Strahan  "  was  very 
urgent  with  me  to  stay  in  England,  and  prevail  with 
you  to  remove  hither  with  Sally.  He  proposed  several 
advantageous  schemes  to  me,  which  appeared  reason- 
ably founded.  ...  I  gave  him,  however,  two  reasons 
why  I  could  not  think  of  removing  hither :  one  my 
affection  to  Pennsylvania,  and  long  established  friend- 
ships and  other  connexions  there ;  the  other,  your  in- 
vincible aversion  to  crossing  the  seas." 

Strahan  was  not  discouraged,  but  wrote  to  Mrs. 
Franklin  himself,  urging  that  the  removal  would  open 
up  a  far  greater  career  to  her  husband. 

"  For  my  own  part,"  he  went  on,  "  I  never  saw  a  man  who 
was,  in  every  respect,  so  perfectly  agreeable  to  me.  Some 
are  amiable  in  one  view,  some  in  another,  he  in  all.  Now, 
Madam,  as  I  know  the  ladies  here  consider  him  in  exactly 
the  same  light  I  do,  upon  my  word  I  think  you  should  come 
over,  with  all  convenient  speed,  to  look  after  your  interest ; 
not  but  that  I  think  him  as  faithful  to  his  Joan  as  any  man 
breathing ;  but  who  knows  what  repeated  and  strong  tempta- 
tion may  in  time,  and  while  he  is  at  so  great  a  distance  from 
you,  accomplish?  ...  I  know  you  will  object  to  the  length 
of  the  voyage  and  the  danger  of  the  seas ;  but  truly  this  is 
more  terrible  in  apprehension  than  in  reality.  Of  all  the  ways 
of  travelling,  it  is  the  easiest  and  most  expeditious ;  and,  as 
for  the  danger,  there  has  not  a  soul  been  lost  between  Phila- 
delphia and  this,  in  my  memory ;  and  I  believe  not  one  ship 
taken  by  the  enemy." 

279 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

But  Mrs.  Franklin  was  not  to  be  induced,  and  her 
spouse  understood  this  so  well  that  he  told  her  that 
Strahan  "offered  to  lay  me  a  considerable  wager,  that  a 
letter  he  has  wrote  to  you  will  bring  you  immediately 
over  hither ;  but  I  tell  him  I  will  not  pick  his  pocket ; 
for  I  am  sure  there  is  no  inducement  strong  enough  to 
prevail  with  you  to  cross  the  seas."  After  his  second 
visit  to  England  he  assured  his  friend  that  nothing  would 
prevent  his  return  "  if  I  can  as  I  hope  I  can,  prevail  with 
Mrs.  F.  to  accompany  me." 

It  is  perhaps  fortunate  that  this  dread  on  his  wife's 
part  existed,  not  merely  because  it  anchored  Franklin 
to  American  soil,  but  also  because  Mrs.  Franklin  would 
have  been  more  of  a  drag  on  her  husband's  public  and 
social  life  in  Great  Britain  than  she  was  in  Philadelphia, 
and  would  have  but  furnished  one  more  example  of  the 
American  diplomat  united  to  a  helpmeet  wholly  unfit 
for  the  duties  of  the  station.  Her  pet  name  for  her 
husband,  "  Pappy,"  was  so  universally  known  that  it 
was  a  favorite  political  joke  of  his  antagonists.  As  her 
spelling  bespoke,  she  was  a  woman  wholly  lacking  in 
cultivation,  and,  still  worse,  an  eye-witness  speaks  of 
"  her  turbulent  temper."  Even  in  Philadelphia  she  was 
not  received  socially,  and  this  seems  to  have  made 
her  jealous  of  Franklin's  public  career,  one  instance  of 
which  is  related  by  a  Mr.  Fisher,  who  had  appealed  to 
Franklin  for  aid. 

"As  I  was  coming  down  from  my  chamber  this  after- 
noon a  Gentlewoman  was  sitting  on  one  of  the  lowest  stairs, 
which  were  but  narrow,  and  there  not  being  room  enough  to 
pass,  she  arose  up  and  threw  herself  upon  the  floor  and  sat 

280 


RELATIONS   WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

there.  Mr.  Soumien  and  his  Wife  greatly  entreated  her  to 
arise  and  take  a  chair,  but  in  vain ;  she  would  keep  her  seat, 
arid  kept  it,  I  think,  the  longer  for  their  entreaty.  This 
Gentlewoman,  whom,  though  I  had  seen  before,  I  did  not 
know,  appeared  to  be  Mrs.  Franklin.  She  assumed  the  airs 
of  extraordinary  Freedom  and  great  Humility,  Lamented 
heavily  the  misfortunes  of  those  who  are  unhappily  infected 
with  a  too  tender  or  benevolent  disposition,  said  she  believed 
all  the  world  claimed  a  privilege  of  troubling  her  Pappy  (so 
she  usually  calls  Mr.  Franklin)  with  their  calamities  and  dis- 
tress, giving  us  a  general  history  of  many  such  wretches  and 
their  impertinent  applications  to  him.  Mr.  Franklin's  moral 
character  is  good,  and  he  and  Mrs.  Franklin  live  irreproach- 
ably as  man  and  wife." 

Yet  none  of  these  defects  seem  really  to  have  troubled 
Franklin.  "  You  can  bear  with  your  own  Faults,  and 
why  not  a  fault  in  your  Wife?  "  he  asked  on  one  occa- 
sion, and  he  seems  himself  to  have  taken  his  own  advice 
to  "  Keep  your  eyes  wide  open  before  marriage,  half 
shut  afterwards."  Some  years  after  his  marriage  he 
wrote  a  song  which  gives  a  pleasant  glimpse  of  his  feel- 
ing for  his  wife. 


MY    PLAIN     COUNTRY    JOAN  ;     A    SONG. 

"  Of  their  Chloes  and  Phyllises  poets  may  prate, 

I  sing  my  plain  country  Joan, 

These  twelve  years  my  wife,  still  the  joy  of  my  life, 
Blest  day  that  I  made  her  my  own. 

"  Not  a  word  of  her  face,  of  her  shape,  of  her  air, 

Or  of  flames,  or  of  darts,  you  shall  hear ; 
I  beauty  admire,  but  virtue  I  prize, 
That  fades  not  in  seventy  year. 

281 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

"  Some  faults  have  we  all,  and  so  has  my  Joan, 

But  then  they  're  exceedingly  small, 
And,  now  I  'm  grown  used  to  them,  so  like  my  own 
I  scarcely  can  see  them  at  all: 

"  Were  the  finest  young  princess,  with  millions  in  purse, 

To  be  had  in  exchange  for  my  Joan, 
I  could  not  get  better  wife,  might  get  a  worse, 
So  I  '11  stick  to  my  dearest  old  Joan." 

To  a  girl  he  wrote  in  the  same  vein :  "  Mrs.  Franklin 
was  very  proud,  that  a  young  lady  should  have  so  much 
regard  for  her  old  husband,  as  to  send  him  such  a  pres- 
ent. We  talk  of  you  every  time  it  comes  to  table.  She 
is  sure  you  are  a  sensible  girl,  and  a  notable  housewife, 
and  talks  of  bequeathing  me  to  you  as  a  legacy ;  but  I 
ought  to  wish  you  a  better,  and  hope  she  will  live  these 
hundred  years ;  for  we  are  grown  old  together,  and  if 
she  has  any  faults,  I  am  so  used  to  them  that  I  don't 
perceive  them." 

After  Franklin's  departure  from  Philadelphia  on  his 
second  agency  to  England,  his  wife  had  a  paralytic  stroke 
which  "  greatly  affected  her  memory  and  understand- 
ing," so  that  William  Franklin  advised  that  "  she  have 
some  clever  body  to  take  care  of  her,"  for  she  <f  becomes 
every  day  more  and  more  unfit  to  be  left  alone  "  ;  and, 
as  already  noted,  Franklin  arranged  that  his  daughter 
and  her  husband  should  live  with  her.  In  the  letter 
announcing  her  death,  his  son  gives  a  pathetic  glimpse 
of  her  last  months : 

"  She  told  me  when  I  took  leave  of  her  on  my  removal  to 
Amboy,  that  she  never  expected  to  see  you  unless  you  re- 
turned this  winter,  for  that  she  was  sure  she  should  not  live 

283 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

till  next  summer.  I  heartily  wish  you  had  happened  to  have 
come  over  in  the  fall,  as  I  think  her  disappointment  in  that 
respect  preyed  a  good  deal  on  her  spirits." 

"  There  are  three  faithful  friends ;  an  old  wife,  an  old 
dog,  and  ready  money,"  said  Poor  Richard,  and  he  de- 
clared that  "  A  good  wife  lost  is  God's  gift  lost." 

The  young  girl  to  whom  Deborah  Franklin  be- 
queathed her  husband  was  Catherine  Ray,  whose  ac- 
quaintance he  made  in  one  of  his  visits  to  New  England, 
and  with  whom  a  regular  correspondence  was  henceforth 
maintained.  Nor  was  this  merely  a  compliment  paid 
by  the  philosopher,  for  it  gave  him  genuine  pleasure. 
"  Begone,  business,  for  an  hour,  at  least,  and  let  me  chat 
a  little  with  my  Katy,"  he  began  one  of  his  letters,  and 
then  continued  : 

"  Now  it  is  near  four  months  since  I  have  been  favored  with 
a  single  line  from  you ;  but  I  will  not  be  angry  with  you, 
because  it  is  my  fault.  I  ran  in  debt  to  you  three  or  four 
letters,  and,  as  I  did  not  pay,  you  would  not  trust  me  any  more, 
and  you  had  some  reason.  But,  believe  me,  I  am  honest,  and, 
though  I  should  never  make  equal  returns,  you  shall  see  I  will 
keep  fair  accounts.  Equal  returns  I  can  never  make,  though 
I  should  write  to  you  by  every  post ;  for  the  pleasure  I  receive 
from  one  of  yours  is  more  than  you  can  have  from  two  of 
mine.  The  small  news,  the  domestic  occurrences  among  our 
friends,  the  natural  pictures  you  draw  of  persons,  the  sensible 
observations  and  reflections  you  make,  and  the  easy,  chatty 
manner  in  which  you  express  every  thing,  all  contribute  to 
heighten  the  pleasure ;  and  the  more  as  they  remind  me  of 
those  hours  and  miles  that  we  talked  away  so  agreeably,  even 
in  a  winter  journey,  a  wrong  road,  and  a  soaking  shower." 

In  time  Miss  Ray  married  William  Greene  of  Rhode 
Island,  who  later  was  governor  of  the  State,  and  in 

284 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR    SEX 

Franklin's  journey  to  New  England,  in  1763,  he  visited 
the  couple  at  their  home  in  Warwick.  "  You  have  spun 
a  long  thread,  five  thousand  and  twenty-two  yards,"  he 
once  told  her.  "  It  will  reach  almost  from  Rhode  Island 


GEORGIANA  SHIPLEY   HARE-NAYLOR. 

After  the  miniature  in  the  possession  of  Augustus  J.  C.  Hare. 

hither.  I  wish  I  had  hold  of  one  end  of  it,  to  pull  you 
to  me.  But  you  would  break  it  rather  than  come." 
Even  in  the  years  in  Paris,  so  full  of  work  and  diversion, 
he  found  time  to  think  of  her,  writing  on  one  occasion: 
"  MY  DEAR  OLD  FRIEND— Don't  be  offended  at  the 


285 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

word  old.  I  don't  mean  to  call  you  an  old  woman;  it 
relates  only  to  the  age  of  our  friendship,  which  on  my 
part  has  always  been  a  sincerely  affectionate  one,  and,  I 
flatter  myself,  the  same  on  yours." 

Friendships  of  the  same  type  were  those  of  the 
daughters  of  Jonathan  Shipley,  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph, 
Georgiana  being  the  favorite.  On  the  outbreak  of  the 
Revolution  the  intercourse  was  for  a  time  suspended, 
but  as  soon  as  Franklin  was  settled  in  Paris  he  found 
means  to  steal  a  letter  to  her,  which  met  with  the  most 
eager  of  responses : 

"  After  near  two  years  had  passed  without  my  hearing  any 
thing  from  you,"  she  replied,  "  and  while  I  looked  upon  the 
renewal  of  our  correspondence  as  a  very  unlikely  event,  it  is 
easier  to  conceive  than  express  the  joy  I  felt  at  receiving  your 
last  kind  letter.  .  .  .  How  good  you  were  to  send  me  your 
direction,  but  I  fear  I  must  not  make  use  of  it  as  often  as  I 
could  wish,  since  my  father  says  that  it  will  be  prudent  not  to 
write  in  the  present  situation  of  affairs.  I  am  not  of  an  age 
to  be  so  very  prudent,  and  the  only  thought  that  occurred  to 
me  was  your  suspecting  that  my  silence  proceeded  from  other 
motives.  I  could  not  support  the  idea  of  your  believing  that 
I  love  and  esteem  you  less  than  I  did  some  few  years  ago.  I 
therefore  write  this  once  without  my  father's  knowledge.  You 
are  the  first  man  that  ever  received  a  private  letter  from  me, 
and  in  this  instance  I  feel  that  my  intentions  justify  my  con- 
duct ;  but  I  must  entreat  that  you  will  take  no  notice  of  my 
writing,  when  next  I  have  the  happiness  of  hearing  from  you. 
...  I  must  once  more  repeat  nobody  knows  of  this  scroll ; 
'a  word  to  the  wise,' — as  Poor  Richard  says." 

Franklin  grieved  that  the  war  should  prevent  their 
seeing  each  other,  and  begged  that,  since  he  was  denied 
the  enjoyment  of  that  "felicity,"  to  "  let  me  have  at 
least  that  of  hearing  from  you  a  little  oftener,"  and  he 

286 


RELATIONS   WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

complained  that  "  it  is  long,  very  long,  my  dear  friend, 
since  I  had  the  great  pleasure  of  hearing  from  you,  and 
receiving  any  of  your  pleasing  letters."  This  was  due, 
Georgiana  informed  him,  to  the  great  "  difficulty  "  in 
"  conveying  my  letters  safe  "  ;  yet,  despite  parents  and 
British  frigates,  she  succeeded  in  sending  him  an  occa- 
sional missive,  in  one  of  which  the  girl  asserted:  "Did 
my  family  know  of  my  writing,  my  letter  would  scarce 
contain  the  very  many  things  they  would  desire  me  to 
say  for  them.  They  continue  to  admire  and  love  you 
as  much  as  they  did  formerly,  nor  can  any  time  or 
event  in  the  least  change  their  sentiments."  "  Strange," 
she  exclaimed,  "  that  I  should  be  under  the  necessity  of 
concealing  from  the  world  a  correspondence  which  it  is 
the  pride  and  glory  of  my  heart  to  maintain." 

Still  another  young-girl  friendship  was  that  with  Mary 
Stevenson,  with  whose  mother  Franklin  lodged  during 
his  many  years  in  London.  As  already  recorded,  he 
endeavored  to  bring  about  a  match  between  her  and  his 
son,  and  though  the  attempt  failed,  he  styled  her  "  my 
dearest  child,"  asking,  "Why  should  I  not  call  you  so 
since  I  love  you  writh  all  the  tenderness  of  a  father?" 
Merely  to  afford  her  a  few  hours  of  pleasure  he  wrote 
his  charming  "  Craven  Street  Gazette,"  a  jocose  court 
circular  intended  to  inform  the  girl,  who  is  styled  "  Her 
Majesty,"  of  the  doings  of  the  household  while  she  was 
away  on  a  visit,  and  from  this  one  excerpt  is  worth 
making,  as  it  concerns  a  woman : 

"  Dr.  Fatsicles  made  four  hundred  and  sixty-nine  turns  in 
his  dining-room  as  the  exact  distance  of  a  visit  to  the  lovely 
Lady  Barwell,  whom  he  did  not  find  at  home ;  so  there  was 

287 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

no  struggle  for  and  against  a  kiss,  and  he  sat  down  to  dream 
in  the  easy-chair  that  he  had  it  without  any  trouble.'' 

In  graver  vein  he  wrote    Miss   Stevenson   long  let- 
ters, in  which   she  was  treated  with   absolute  intellec- 


MRS.  MARY  (STEVENSON)  HEWSON. 

After  the  picture  in  the  possession  of  C.  S.  Bradford,  Philadelphia. 

tual  equality ;  yet,  write  as  he  would  of  scientific  sub- 
jects, as  was  inevitable,  the  little  sense  of  sex  was 
present,  for  he  ended  one :  "  After  writing  six  folio 
pages  of  philosophy  to  a  young  girl,  is  it  necessary  to 

288  ' 


RELATIONS    WITH   THE    FAIR   SEX 

finish  such  a  letter  with  a  compliment?  Is  not  such  a 
letter  of  itself  a  compliment  ?  "  Miss  Stevenson  in  time 
married  Dr.  Hewson,  but  this  brought  no  change  in  the 
friendship ;  and  in  i  782  Franklin  noted  that : 

"  In  looking  forward,  twenty-five  years  seem  a  long  period, 
but,  in  looking  back,  how  short!  Could  you  imagine  that  it 
is  now  full  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  we  were  first  ac- 
quainted? It  was  in  1757.  During  the  greatest  part  of  the 
time,  I  lived  in  the  same  house  with  my  dear  deceased  friend, 
your  mother ;  of  course  you  and  I  conversed  with  each  other 
much  and  often.  It  is  to  all  our  honors  that  in  all  that  time 
we  never  had  among  us  the  smallest  misunderstanding.  Our 
friendship  has  been  all  clear  sunshine,  without  the  least  cloud 
in  its  hemisphere.  Let  me  conclude  by  saying  to  you,  what 
I  have  had  too  frequent  occasions  to  say  to  my  other  remain- 
ing old  friends :  '  The  fewer  we  become,  the  more  let  us  love 
one  another.'  " 

After  the  peace  was  concluded  with  England,  Mrs. 
Hewson  and  her  children,  at  Franklin's  urging,  came 
to  France  and  stayed  several  months  with  him  at  Passy 
as  his  guests,  and  after  their  departure  he  complained  : 
"  I  have  found  it  very  tristc  breakfasting  alone,  and 
sitting  alone,  and  without  any  tea  in  the  evening." 
Again  at  his  urging  they  removed  to  Philadelphia,  and 
Mrs.  Hewson  was  much  with  him  in  the  last  years  of 
his  life,  and  even  in  his  final  sickness  and  death,  which 
she  described  in  a  long  letter  to  an  English  friend, 
speaking  of  him  as  that  "  Venerable,  kind  friend,  whose 
knowledge  enlightened  our  minds,  and  whose  philan- 
thropy warmed  our  hearts." 

In  France  social  custom  prevented  the  same  intimacy 
with  young  girls,  and  so  his  feminine  friendships  in  that 
country  were  of  a  very  different  type.  "  I  now  and  then 
'9  289 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

hear  of  your  life  and  glorious  achievements  in  the  political 
way,"  his  sister  informed  him,  "  as  well  as  in  the  favour 
of  the  ladies  ('  since  you  have  rubbed  off  the  mechanic 
rust  and  commenced  complete  courtier  ')  who,  Jonathan 


ELIZABETH   FRAN£OISE,    COUNTESS  D  HOUDETOT. 
From  a  print 

Williams  writes  me,  claim  from  you  the  tribute  of  an 
embrace,  and  it  seems  you  do  not  complain  of  the  tax 
as  a  very  great  penance."  "  The  account  you  have  had 
of  the  vogue  I  am  in  here  has  some  truth  in  it,"  Frank- 
lin answered.  "  Perhaps  few  strangers  in  France  have 
had  the  good  fortune  to  be  so  universally  popular;  but 

290 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

the  story  you  allude  to,  mentioning  '  mechanic  rust,'  is 
totally  without  foundation.  But  one  is  not  to  expect 
being  always  in  fashion.  I  hope,  however,  to  preserve, 
while  I  stay,  the  regard  you  mention  of  the  French 
ladies ;  for  their  society  and  conversation,  when  I  have 
time  to  enjoy  them,  are  extremely  agreeable."  And 
he  gives  us  another  glimpse  of  this  favor  by  jokingly 
writing  to  an  Englishwoman : 

"  You  are  too  early,  hussy,  as  well  as  too  saucy,  in  calling  me 
rebel;  you  should  wait  for  the  event,  which  will  determine 
whether  it  is  a  rebellion  or  only  a  revolution.  Here  the  ladies 
are  more  civil ;  they  call  us  les  instirgens,  a  character  that 
usually  pleases  them ;  and  methinks  all  other  women  who 
smart,  or  have  smarted,  under  the  tyranny  of  a  bad  husband, 
ought  to  be  fixed  in  revolution  principles,  and  act  accordingly." 

One  of  the  most  admiring  of  these  French  ladies  was 
the  Countess  d'Houdetot,  better  known  to  history 
through  the  "  Confessions  "  of  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau. 
Her  salon  was  one  of  the  most  famous  of  Paris,  and 
when  his  health  permitted,  Franklin  was  a  fairly  regular 
attendant.  In  addition,  he  visited  her  at  least  twice  in 
her  country  home  at  Sanois,  the  first  visit  being  made 
the  occasion  of  a  fete,  of  which  a  description  has  been 
preserved.  Upon  his  arrival,  he  was  handed  from  his 
carriage  by  the  countess  and  welcomed  with  a  verse  of 
her  own  composition,  beginning,  "  Ame  du  heros,  et  du 
sage."  At  dinner,  with  each  glass  of  wine,  other  verses 
in  his  honor  were  recited  or  sung  by  each  of  the  guests, 
and  the  meal  being  over,  the  company  went  to  the 
garden,  where  Franklin,  at  the  request  of  his  hostess, 
planted  a  Virginia  locust-tree,  and  the  countess  repeated 

291 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

another  verse  of  her  own  writing,  which  was  afterward 
cut  in  a  marble  pillar  that  was  placed  near  the  tree. 
When  the  hour  of  departure  came,  Franklin  was  recon- 
ducted  by  the  whole  company  to  his  carnage,  and  before 
the  door  was  shut,  the  countess  pronounced  the  follo\v- 
ing  complimentary  verse  composed  by  herself : 

"  Legislateur  d'un  monde,  et  bienfaiteur  des  deux, 
L'homme  dans  tous  les  temps  te  devra  ses  hommages ; 
Et  je  m'acquitte  dans  ces  lieux 
De  la  dette  de  tous  les  ages." 

After  his  return  to  America,  she  begged  "  My  dear 
Doctor"  to  "think  of  me  sometimes,  of  Sanois,  the 
revered  tree  planted  by  your  hands  and  which  grows 
on  the  spot  of  soil  which  belongs  to  me,"  "  where  it  is 
so  sweet  to  me  to  think  of  you,  and  to  render  homage 
to  your  virtues  and  enlightenment,  and  whatsoever 
makes  you  respected  by  and  dear  to  humanity.  This 
is,  as  you  know,  my  kind  of  religion,  and  you  are  one 
of  my  saints."  For  herself,  she  declared  that  "  I  pre- 
serve the  memory  of  those  moments  you  have  so  kindly 
passed  there,  and  with  a  tender  interest  I  cultivate  the 
memorial  you  have  left  there  of  your  transit." 

Another  well-known  salon  of  which  Franklin  was  a 
frequenter  was  that  of  Mme.  Helvetius,  by  her  friends 
styled  "  Our  Lady  of  Auteuil."  She  was  the  widow  of 
the  well-known  French  scientist,  who  had  left  her  a 
large  property,  which  enabled  her  to  give  a  comfortable 
home  to  a  French  priest  and  to  several  cats.  "  Madame 
H.  appears  to  have  been  a  very  beautiful  woman,  when 
young,"  Miss  Adams  records;  but  at  the  time  Franklin 

292 


RELATIONS   WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

knew  her  "  a  French  lady  compared  her  to  the  ruins  of 
Palmyra."  This  may  have  been  the  eyesight  of  her 
own  sex,  for  she  does  not  seem  to  have  found  favor 
with  them,  if  we  may  judge  from  a  description  written 
by  Mrs.  John  Adams : 

"  She  entered  the  room  with  a  careless,  jaunty  air ;  upon  see- 
ing ladies  who  were  strangers  to  her,  she  bawled  out, '  Ah !  mon 
Dieu,  where  is  Franklin?  Why  did  you  not  tell  me  there  were 
ladies  here?'  You  must  suppose  her  speaking  all  this  in 
French.  'How  I  look!'  said  she,  taking  hold  of  a  chemise 
made  of  tiffany,  which  she  had  on  over  a  blue  lute-string,  and 
which  looked  as  much  upon  the  decay  as  her  beauty,  for  she 
was  once  a  handsome  woman  ;  her  hair  was  frizzled  ;  over  it 
she  had  a  small  straw  hat,  with  a  dirty  gauze  half-handker- 
chief round  it,  and  a  bit  of  dirtier  gauze  than  ever  my  maids 
wore  was  bowed  on  behind.  She  had  a  black  gauze  scarf 
thrown  over  her  shoulders.  She  ran  out  of  the  room ;  when 
she  returned,  the  Doctor  entered  at  one  door,  she  at  the 
other ;  upon  which  she  ran  forward  to  him,  caught  him  by 
the  hand,  'Helas!  Franklin';  then  gave  him  a  double  kiss, 
one  upon  each  cheek,  and  another  upon  his  forehead.  When 
we  went  into  the  room  to  dine,  she  was  placed  between  the 
Doctor  and  Mr.  Adams.  She  carried  on  the  chief  of  the  con- 
versation at  dinner,  frequently  locking  her  hands  into  the 
Doctor's,  and  sometimes  spreading  her  arms  upon  the  backs 
of  both  the  gentlemen's  chairs,  then  throwing  her  arm  care- 
lessly upon  the  Doctor's  neck. 

"  I  should  have  been  greatly  astonished  at  this  conduct,  if 
the  good  Doctor  had  not  told  me  that  in  this  lady  I  should 
see  a  genuine  Frenchwoman,  wholly  free  from  affectation  or 
stiffness  of  behaviour,  and  one  of  the  best  women  in  the  world. 
For  this  I  must  take  the  Doctor's  word  ;  but  I  should  have  set 
her  down  for  a  very  bad  one,  although  sixty  years  of  age,  and 
a  widow.  I  own  I  was  highly  disgusted,  and  never  wish  for 
an  acquaintance  with  any  ladies  of  this  cast.  After  dinner  she 
threw  herself  upon  a  settee,  where  she  showed  more  than  her 
feet.  She  had  a  little  lap-dog,  who  was,  next  to  the  Doctor, 
her  favorite.  This  she  kissed,  and  when  he  wet  the  floor  she 

-9-  293 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

wiped  it  up  with  her  chemise.  This  is  one  of  the  Doctor's 
most  intimate  friends,  with  whom  he  dines  once  every  week, 
and  she  with  him.  She  is  rich,  and  is  my  near  neighbor ;  but 
I  have  not  yet  visited  her.  Thus  you  see,  my  dear,  that  man- 
ners differ  exceedingly  in  different  countries.  I  hope,  how- 
ever, to  find  amongst  the  French  ladies  manners  more  consistent 
with  my  ideas  of  decency,  or  I  shall  be  a  mere  recluse." 

Of  this  description  we  get  an  amusing  echo  from  little 
Miss  Adams,  for  she  confided  to  her  journal :  "  Dined 
at  Mr.  Franklin's  by  invitation  ;  a  number  of  gentlemen, 
and  Madame  Helvetius,  a  French  lady  sixty  years  of 
age.  Odious  indeed  do  our  sex  appear  when  divested 
of  those  ornaments,  with  which  modesty  and  delicacy 
adorn  us." 

In  however  much  disfavor  Mme.  Helvetius  may  have 
been  with  women,  Franklin  was  undoubtedly  sincere  in 
his  admiration,  for  he  speaks  of  her  as  his  "fair  friend 
at  Auteuil,"  who  still  possesses  "  health  and  personal 
charms,"  and  he  complimented  her  by  asserting  that 
"  statesmen,  philosophers,  historians,  poets,  and  men  of 
learning  of  all  sorts  are  drawn  round  you,  and  seem  as 
willing  to  attach  themselves  to  you  as  straws  about  a 
fine  piece  of  amber."  As  for  himself,  he  declared: 

"  Mr.  Franklin  never  forgets  any  party  at  which  Madame 
Helvetius  is  expected.  He  even  believes  that  if  he  were  en- 
gaged to  go  to  Paradise  this  morning,  he  would  pray  for  per- 
mission to  remain  on  earth  until  half-past  one,  to  receive  the 
embrace  promised  him  at  the  Turgots'." 

"  I  have  often  remarked,"  he  wrote  her  spiritual  con- 
fessor, "  in  reading  the  works  of  M.  Helvetius,  that, 
although  we  were  born  and  educated  in  two  countries 

294 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

so  remote  from  each  other,  we  have  often  been  inspired 
with  the  same  thoughts ;  and  it  is  a  reflection  very  flat- 
tering to  me,  that  we  have  not  only  loved  the  same 
studies,  but,  as  far  as  we  have  mutually  known  them, 
the  same  friends,  and  the  same  woman."  To  Cabanis, 
too,  who  at  one  time  was  her  guest,  he  wrote  letters, 


MMK.    HELVETIUS. 
From  a  miniature  in  the  possession  of  M.  Alfred  Dutens. 

"  to  be  shown  to  Madame  Helvetius,"  couched  in  terms 
that  to-day  would  be  deemed  insultingly  suggestive, 
but  which  then  seemed  to  be  thought  the  height  of 
gallantry. 

Although  the  fact  that  the  widow  kept  in  her  bed- 
room, "  upon  a  table,  under  a  glass,"  "a  monument 
erected  to  the  memory  of  her  husband,  over  which 
hung  his  picture,  which  was  very  handsome,"  should 
have  warned  the  philosopher,  he  none  the  less  sought 
to  win  her  love,  and  his  letter  pleading  a  reversal  of 

295 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

her    negative    is    one    of    the    most    amusing   he   ever 
penned  : 

"  Mortified  at  the  barbarous  resolution  pronounced  by  you 
so  positively  yesterday  evening,  that  you  would  remain  single 
the  rest  of  your  life  as  a  compliment  due  to  the  memory  of 
your  husband,  I  retired  to  my  chamber.  Throwing  myself 
upon  my  bed,  I  dreamt  that  I  was  dead,  and  was  transported 
to  the  Elysian  Fields. 

"  I  was  asked  whether  I  wished  to  see  any  persons  in  par- 
ticular ;  to  which  I  replied  that  I  wished  to  see  the  philosophers. 
'  There  are  two  who  live  here  at  hand  in  this  garden ;  they 
are  good  neighbors,  and  very  friendly  towards  one  another.' 
—  'Who  are  they?  '  — '  Socrates  and  Helvetius.'— '  I  esteem 
them  both  highly ;  but  let  me  see  Helvetius  first,  because  I 
understand  a  little  French,  but  not  a  word  of  Greek.'  I 
was  conducted  to  him ;  he  received  me  with  much  courtesy, 
having  known  me,  he  said,  by  character,  some  time  past.  He 
asked  me  a  thousand  questions  relative  to  the  war,  the  present 
state  of  religion,  of  liberty,  of  the  government  in  France. 
'  You  do  not  inquire,  then,'  said  I,  '  after  your  dear  friend, 
Madame  Helvetius ;  yet  she  loves  you  exceedingly.  I  was  in 
her  company  not  more  than  an  hour  ago.'  '  Ah,'  said  he, 
'  you  make  me  recur  to  my  past  happiness,  which  ought  to 
be  forgotten  in  order  to  be  happy  here.  For  many  years  I 
could  think  of  nothing  but  her,  though  at  length  I  am  con- 
soled. I  have  taken  another  wife,  the  most  like  her  that  I 
could  find  ;  she  is  not  indeed  altogether  so  handsome,  but  she 
has  a  great  fund  of  wit  and  good  sense,  and  her  whole  study  is 
to  please  me.  She  is  at  this  moment  gone  to  fetch  the  best 
nectar  and  ambrosia  to  regale  me ;  stay  here  awhile  and  you 
will  see  her.'  'I  perceive,'  said  I,  'that  your  former  friend 
is  more  faithful  to  you  than  you  are  to  her ;  she  has  had 
several  good  offers,  but  has  refused  them  all.  I  will  confess 
to  you  that  I  loved  her  extremely ;  but  she  was  cruel  to  me, 
and  rejected  me  peremptorily  for  your  sake.'  '  I  pity  you 
sincerely/  said  he,  '  for  she  is  an  excellent  woman,  hand- 
some and  amiable.'  .  .  .  As  he  finished  these  words  the  new 
Madame  Helvetius  entered  with  the  nectar,  and  I  recognized 
her  immediately  as  my  former  American  friend,  Mrs.  Frank- 

296 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

lin!  I  reclaimed  her,  but  she  answered  me  coldly:  'I  was 
a  good  wife  to  you  for  forty-nine  years  and  four  months,  nearly 
half  a  century ;  let  that  content  you.  I  have  formed  a  new 
connection  here,  which  will  last  to  eternity.' 

"  Indignant  at  this  refusal  of  my  Eurydice,  I  immediately 
resolved  to  quit  those  ungrateful  shades,  and  return  to  this 
good  world  again,  to  behold  the  sun  and  you!  Here  I  am; 
let  us  avenge  ourselves!  " 

The  lady  was,  however,  unpersuadable ;  yet  the  friend- 
ship suffered  no  diminution,  and  after  Franklin  returned 
to  America  she  welcomed  increase  of  years,  because 
"  we  shall  meet  the  sooner  and  the  sooner  shall  we  find 
one  another  with  all  we  have  loved,  I  a  husband  and 
you  a  wife,  but  I  believe  that  you,  who  have  been  a 
rogue  \coqniii\t  will  find  more  than  one!" 

Another  Frenchwoman  to  whom  Franklin  offered 
more  than  his  friendship  was  a  Mine.  Brillon ;  and  it  is 
easy  to  believe  him  as  genuinely  attracted,  for  she  was 
not  merely  young,  but  Miss  Adams  reports  her  as  "  one 
of  the  handsomest  women  in  France."  Moreover,  Mme. 
Brillon  was  married  to  a  man  far  older  than  herself,  who 
yet  was  not  faithful  to  her ;  and  she  was  perfectly  open 
to  Franklin  about  her  marital  unhappiness. 

"My  father,"  she  confided  to  him,  "marriage  in  this  country 
is  made  by  weight  of  gold.  On  one  end  of  the  scale  is  placed  the 
fortune  of  a  boy,  on  the  other  that  of  a  girl ;  when  equality  is 
found  the  affair  is  ended  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  relatives ; 
one  does  not  dream  of  consulting  taste,  age,  congeniality  of 
character;  one  marries  a  young  girl  whose  heart  is  full  of 
youth's  fire  and  its  cravings,  to  a  man  who  has  used  them  up ; 
then  one  exacts  that  this  woman  be  virtuous— my  friend,  this 
story  is  mine,  and  of  how  many  others !  I  shall  do  my  best 
that  it  may  not  be  that  of  my  daughters,  but  alas,  shall  I  be 
mistress  of  their  fate?  " 

297 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Indeed,  had  not  her  adopted  parent  been  a  man  of  over 
seventy,  the  conditions  were  all  in  favor  of  one  of  the 
so-called  romances  so  common  in  France;  and  there  is 
no  doubt  that,  despite  his  years,  he  would  have  been 
willing  to  have  had  it  so.  But,  though  Mme.  Brillon 
gave  Franklin  "  my  word  of  honor  that  I  will  be  your 
wife  in  Paradise,  on  condition  that  you  do  not  ogle  the 
maidens  too  much  while  waiting  for  me,"  she  assured 
him  that  in  this  world  "  I  shall  always  be  a  gentle  and 
virtuous  woman,"  and,  continuing,  she  begged  him  not 
to  tempt  her  further,  but  to  "  try  to  make  me  a  strong 
one:  perhaps  this  miracle  is  reserved  for  you." 

"  I  had  a  father,"  she  told  him,  "  the  kindest  of  men,  he  was 
my  first,  and  my  best  friend;  I  lost  him  untimely!  you  have 
often  said  to  me  ;  could  I  not  take  the  place  of  those  whom  you 
regret;  and  you  told  me  the  custom  of  certain  savages  who 
adopt  the  prisoners  that  they  capture  in  war,  and  make  them 
take  the  place  of  the  relatives  whom  they  lose ;  you  took  in 
my  heart  the  place  of  the  father  whom  I  so  loved,  and  re- 
spected ;  the  cruel  grief  I  felt  in  his  loss,  is  changed  to  a 
gentle  melancholy  which  is  dear  to  me  and  which  I  owe  to 
you ;  in  me  you  have  gained  another  child,  another  friend  ;  I 
commenced  by  having  for  you  the  worship  that  all  the  world 
owes  to  a  great  man ;  and  I  had  a  curiosity  to  see  you,  my 
pride  was  flattered  to  receive  you  in  my  own  house ;  next  I 
only  saw  in  you  your  soul  responsive  to  affection,  your  good- 
ness, your  simplicity ;  and  I  said,  this  man  is  so  good  he  will 
love  me,  and  I  began  to  love  you  much  so  that  you  might  do 
the  same  to  me." 

In  good  faith  Franklin  accepted  the  friendship  she 
was  willing  to  give,  and  the  two  saw  much  of  each  other, 
it  becoming  his  regular  custom  to  spend  two  evenings 
in  the  week  with  her,  when  she  entertained  him  "  with 

298 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

little  concerts,  a  cup  of  tea,  and  a  game  of  chess." 
Very  frequently  her  ill  health  compelled  a  suspension  of 
these,  and  then  they  corresponded,  Franklin  writing  a 
number  of  his  most  charming  bagatelles  solely  for  the 
invalid's  amusement.  One  amusing  glimpse  of  the  man- 
ners of  the  times  is  to  be  found  in  an  apology  he  made 
her.  Having  received  news  that  she  was  confined  by 
her  ailment,  though  he  himself  was  suffering  from  the 
gout,  he  sent  her  word  that  "  I  shall  betake  myself  to 
your  house,  my  dear  girl,  to-morrow  morning  with  great 
pleasure;  and  if  you  cannot  come  down  without  diffi- 
culty, perhaps  I  shall  be  strong  enough  to  climb  your 
stairway ;  the  wish  to  see  you  will  give  me  more 
strength."  Interest  in  chess,  however,  made  him  forget 
that  he  was  calling  upon  a  weak  woman,  and  so,  "  On 
reaching  home  I  was  surprised  to  find  that  it  was  almost 
eleven  o'clock.  I  fear  that  by  forgetting  all  else  in  our 
too  great  absorption  in  the  game  of  chess,  we  have 
greatly  incommoded  you  by  detaining  you  so  long  in 
the  bath.  Tell  me,  my  dear  friend,  how  you  are  this 
morning.  Never  hereafter  shall  I  consent  to  begin  a 
game  in  your  bath  room.  Can  you  forgive  me  this 
indiscretion?"  In  reply,  Mme.  Brillon  assured  him: 

"  My  good  papa,  your  visits  never  caused  me  any  inconve- 
nience, all  those  around  me  respect  you,  love  you,  and  think 
themselves  honored  in  the  friendship  you  have  granted  us ;  I 
told  you  that  the  world  criticized  the  sort  of  familiarity  which 
existed  among  us,  because  I  was  warned  of  it ;  I  despise  slan- 
derers and  am  at  peace  with  myself,  but  that  is  not  enough, 
one  must  submit  to  what  is  called  propriety:  (that  word  varies 
in  each  century,  in  each  country ! )  to  sit  less  often  on  your 
knees.  I  shall  certainly  love  you  none  the  less,  nor  will  our 

299 


WILLIAM    TEMPLE    FRANKLIN,    1790. 
Grandson  of  Benjamin  Franklin. 

From  the  original  painting  in  the  Trumbull  collection  of  the 
Yale  School  of  Art,  New  Haven,  Conn. 


RELATIONS   WITH   THE    FAIR   SEX 

hearts  be  more  or  less  pure,  but  we  shall  close  the  mouth  of 
the  malicious,  and  it  is  no  slight  thing  even  for  the  sage,  to 
make  them  silent." 

Then,  as  if  feeling  that  she  must  hold  out  a  pleasanter 
prospect,  she  further  wrote:  "I  think  about  our  ar- 
rangements in  paradise,  perhaps  you  will  be  allowed  a 
little  more  freedom  towards  me,  if  by  good  luck  the 
angels  are  not  corrupted  by  the  spinsters  as  I  fear 
greatly ;  everywhere  morals  are  so  bad — do  you  know, 
my  dear  papa,  that  people  have  criticized  my  pleasant 
habit  of  sitting  on  your  lap,  and  yours  of  asking  me  for 
what  I  always  refuse :  one  sees  harm  in  everything  in 
this  miserable  country."  It  is  pleasant  to  record  that 
among  these  malicious  people  M.  Brillon  was  not  in- 
cluded, for  he  maintained  an  intimate  friendship  with 
Franklin,  and  on  one  occasion  wrote  him :  "  You  have 
surely  just  kissed  my  wife,  my  dear  Doctor;  permit  me 
to  return  it  to  you." 

However  platonic  the  relation  might  be  in  the  eyes  of 
Mme.  Brillon,  Franklin  was  now  and  then  called  upon 
to  apologize  for  or  extenuate  what  she  styled  "  that 
gaiety,  that  gallantry  which  makes  all  women  love  you." 

"  What  a  difference,  my  dear  friend,  between  you  and  me!  " 
he  said.  "You  find  in  me  innumerable  faults  while  in  you  I 
only  see  one ;  (but  this  perhaps  is  the  fault  of  my  spectacles) 
I  mean  that  kind  of  avarice  which  makes  you  monopolize  all 
my  affection  ;  and  not  to  permit  me  any  towards  the  charming 
ladies  of  your  country.  You  imagine  that  my  affection  can 
not  be  divided  without  being  diminished  ?  You  are  mistaken  ; 
and  you  forget  the  playful  way  with  which  you  check  me  ;  you 
disclaim  and  totally  exclude  all  that  our  love  might  have  of 
fleshly  in  permitting  me  only  some  courteous  and  virtuous 

301 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

salutes,  such  as  you  might  give  to  some  little  cousins ;  hou 
much  do  I  benefit  from  it  then  that  I  may  not  do  as  much 
to  others  without  lessening  what  belongs  to  you?  " 

"  You  have  taught  me  to  know  and  to  practise  a 
wicked  sin  which  we  call  jealousy,"  she  replied ;  but 
that  this  was  a  playful  assertion  is  shown  by  her  telling 
him  on  one  occasion  to  "  Give  this  evening  to  my  ami- 
able rival,  Mde  Helvetius,  kiss  her  for  yourself  and  for 
me  "  ;  and,  upon  another,  by  granting  him  a  "power  of 
attorney  to  kiss  for  me  until  my  return,  whenever  you 
see  them,  my  two  neighbors  Le  Veillard  and  my  pretty 
neighbor  Caiollot."  Furthermore,  when  Mme.  Helve- 
tius, after  Franklin's  departure  for  America,  exclaimed 
to  her,  "  Ah,  that  great  man,  that  poor,  dear  man,  we 
shall  see  him  no  more!"  Mme.  Brillon  retorted,  "  It 
is  entirely  your  fault,  madame." 

Yet,  if  thus  willing  to  share  his  society  with  other 
women,  Mme.  Brillon  eagerly  craved  his  companionship. 
"  Come  to-morrow  to  take  tea,  come  every  Wednesday 
and  Saturday,  come  as  often  as  you  wish,  my  heart  calls 
you,  expects  you,  is  attached  toyou  forlife,"  she  besought 
him  ;  and  again  she  took  him  to  task  because  "  You  pass 
a  Wednesday  then  without  me  actually?  and  you  will 
say  after  that,  /  love  you  furiously  in  excess;  and  I,  my 
good  papa,  who  do  not  love  you  furiously — but  very 
tenderly,  not,  in  excess;  I  love  you  enough  to  be  sorry 
not  to  see  you  every  time  it  is  possible  to  me  or  to  you  ; 
which  loves  the  more,  and  the  better  of  us  twain?" 
Yet  a  third  time  she  wrote :  "  To-morrow  I  expect  my 
good  papa,  the  pleasure  of  seeing  him  increases  my 
well-being ;  and  makes  me  forget  my  ills  when  I  am 

302 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR    SEX 

sick :  if  papa  sometimes  sees  me  melancholy,  he  knows 
that  that  is  the  habit,  the  tendency,  of  tender  hearts ; 
he  may  say,  she  amuses  me  less  than  another  woman  ; 
but  I  flatter  myself  that  my  papa  will  add,  she  loves 
me  better,  she  alone,  than  all  the  other  women  put 
together ;  farewell  to  you  whom  my  heart  loved  from 
the  first  instant  of  our  acquaintance  ;  until  to-morrow  ; 
and  any  day  that  your  friendship  will  spare  to  your 
daughter."  When  at  last  the  time  came  for  Franklin 
to  return  to  America,  she  made  him  a  really  touching 
farewell : 

"  I  had  so  full  a  heart  yesterday  in  leaving  you  that  I  feared 
for  you  and  myself  a  grief  stricken  moment  which  could  only 
add  to  the  pain  which  our  separation  causes  me,  without  prov- 
ing to  you  further  the  tender  and  unalterable  affection  that  I 
have  vowed  to  you  for  always :  every  day  of  my  life  I  shall 
recall  that  a  great  man,  a  sage,  was  willing  to  be  my  friend, 
my  wishes  will  follow  him  everywhere,  my  heart  will  regret 
him  incessantly,  incessantly  I  shall  say,  I  passed  eight  years 
with  doctor  Franklin,  they  have  flown  and  I  shall  see  him  no 
more!  nothing  in  the  world  could  console  me  for  this  loss, 
except  the  thought  of  the  peace  and  happiness  that  you  are 
about  to  find  in  the  bosom  of  your  family." 

Another  attachment  and  another  disappointment  are 
told  of  by  John  Adams,  who,  writing  of  a  daughter  of 
M.  de  Boulainvilliers  who  was  styled  "  Mademoiselle 
de  Passy,  and  was  certainly  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
young  ladies  I  ever  saw  in  France,"  said : 

"  Mr.  Franklin,  who  at  the  age  of  seventy  odd  had  neither 
lost  his  love  of  beauty  nor  his  taste  for  it,  called  Mademoi- 
selle de  Passy  his  favorite,  and  his  flame,  and  his  love,  which 
flattered  the  family,  and  did  not  displease  the  young  lady. 
After  the  Marquis  [de  Tonnerre]  had  demanded  Mademoi- 

3°3 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

selle  for  a  wife,  and  obtained  her,  Madame  de  Chaumont, 
who  was  a  wit,  the  first  time  she  saw  Franklin,  cried  out, '  He- 
las!  tous  les  conducteurs  de  Monsieur  Franklin  n'ont  pas  em- 
peche  le  tonnerre  de  tomber  sur  Mademoiselle  de  Passy.'  " 

As  Franklin  had  tried  to  arrange  matches  for  both 
his  son  and  daughter,  so  he  endeavored  in  these  years 
in  France  to  make  a  match  between  his  grandson,  Wil- 
liam Temple,  and  a  daughter  of  Mme.  Brillon ;  but  the 
parents,  "  though  it  would  be  dear  to  my  heart  and  very 
agreeable  to  M.  Brillon  to  have  been  able  to  form  a 
union  which  would  make  us  but  one  family,"  and 
though  "  we  love  your  son  and  believe  he  has  every- 
thing required  to  make  a  distinguished  man,  and  to 
make  a  woman  happy,"  refused  their  consent,  because 
"  we  must  have  a  son-in-law  who  can  be  in  a  condition 
to  fill  my  husband's  place,"  and  "  a  man  of  our  religion." 
"  Let  us  love  one  another,"  she  advised,  "  and  try  to 
forget  a  plan  which  to  remember  would  only  cause 
regrets,  or  never  to  recall  it  save  to  be  still  more  sure, 
if  it  be  possible,  of  the  esteem  and  friendship  we  all  have 
for  each  other."  Apparently  Franklin,  the  philoso- 
pher, was  doomed  to  failure  as  a  match-maker,  though 
his  advocacy  of  marriage  was  so  well  known  that  his 
own  daughter  wrote  him :  "  As  I  know  my  dear  Papa 
likes  to  hear  of  weddings,  I  will  give  him  a  list  of  my 
acquaintance  that  has  entered  the  matrimonial  state 
since  his  departure." 

Turning  from  these  half-romances,  it  is  pleasant  to 
find  him  doing  what  he  could  for  women  for  whom 
there  could  be  neither  sentiment  nor  friendship.  To 
Sarah  Randolph,  widow  of  the  loyalist,  who  wrote 

3°4 


LADY    JULIANA    PEXN. 

From  a  photograph  by  H.  H.  Hay  Cameron,  of  portrait  by  Peter  Van  Dyke, 
in  the  possession  of  the  Earl  of  Ranfurly. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

to  him  from  the  Deptford  poorhouse,  he  sent  money 
to  relieve  her  from  the  worst  of  her  distress.  A  more 
striking  service  still  was  for  the  widow  of  an  old  per- 
sonal enemy.  In  his  political  career  in  Pennsylvania  he 
had  no  bitterer  antagonists  than  Thomas  and  Richard 
Penn,  the  proprietors  of  Pennsylvania,  who  had  fought 
him  with  every  known  weapon ;  but  after  the  Revolu- 
tion, when  Lady  Juliana  Penn  appealed  to  him,  begging 
"  his  assistance  and  protection  in  the  recovery  of  the 
rights  and  possessions  of  an  unfortunate  family  who 
have  so  heavily  felt  the  misfortunes  of  this  war,  and 
who  are  likely  still  to  be  dreadful  sufferers  .  .  .  And 
in  confidence  of  your  well  known  wisdom  &  generosity 
I  adopt  you  for  the  guardian  of  William  Penn's  grand- 
child," he  did  not  fail  her,  but  did  what  he  could  to 
obtain  a  restoration  of  the  Penn  lands  to  that  family. 

A  glance  in  closing  at  Franklin's  views  on  women  in 
general  is  worth  taking.  How  he  advised  that  they  be 
taught  accounts  has  been  already  noted ;  and  he  had 
his  own  daughter  instructed  in  French  and  music, 
though  he  grieved  that  she  should  not  be  "  a  little  more 
careful  of  her  spelling."  To  an  Englishman  he  boasted 
that  American  women  could  converse  upon  most  sub- 
jects, even  while  he  told  his  wife  that  "  You  are  very 
prudent  not  to  engage  in  party  disputes.  Women 
should  never  meddle  with  them,  except  in  endeavours 
to  reconcile  their  husbands,  brothers,  and  friends,  who 
happen  to  be  of  contrary  sides.  If  your  sex  keep  cool, 
you  may  be  a  means  of  cooling  ours  the  sooner,  and 
restoring  more  speedily  that  social  harmony  among  fel- 
low-citizens that  is  so  desirable  after  long  and  bitter 

306 


RELATIONS    WITH    THE    FAIR   SEX 

dissensions."  Miss  Adams  states  that  "  He  told  me  he 
preferred  an  English  lady  who  had  acquired  the  graces 
of  French  manners ;  which,  he  added,  were  to  be  gained 
no  where  but  at  Paris — that  was  the  centre,  and  there 
they  were  all  collected  and  resided.  I  believe  he  was 
here  right ;  there  is  a  something  not  to  be  defined,  that 
the  French  women  possess,  which,  when  it  ornaments 
and  adorns  an  English  lady,  forms  something  irresisti- 
bly charming."  Perhaps  these  views  account  for  Poor 
Richard's  groan : 

"  1st  not  enough  plagues,  wars  and  famines  rise 
To  lash  our  crimes,  but  must  our  wives  be  wise?  " 


Monfieur  &  Madame  BRILLON  DE  JOUY 

ont  Thonneur  de  vous  faire  part  du  Manage  de 
Mademoifelle  BRILLON,  l^ir  Fille,  ayec  Monfieur 
PARIS. 


-x>*«*-»»«-«-»^ 


FRANKLIN'S  INVITATION  TO  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  MLLE. 

BRILLON,  TO  WHOM  HE  HAD  WISHED  TO 

MARRY  HIS  GRANDSON. 

(The  indorsement  is  in  Franklin's  handwriting.) 


3°7 


ASSOCIATION   BATTERY. 

From  an  original  sketch  in  the  possession  of  the  Historical  Society 
of  Pennsylvania. 


VIII 


JACK    OF    ALL   TRADES 

THE  career  of  Franklin  teaches  very  strongly  that 
general  ability,  rather  than  special  aptitude,  is 
the  quality  most  potent  in  winning  success;  for  it  is 
impossible  not  to  conclude  that  he  possessed  elements 
which  would  have  raised  him,  even  had  his  lot  been 
other  than  what  it  was.  Several  times  in  his  life  he 
changed  his  vocation  or  interests,  but  never  with  ap- 
parent loss,  and  the  main  impression  that  his  life  leaves 
on  the  student  is  that  he  was  not  merely  multidexter- 
ous,  but  multiminded. 

Franklin  came  of  a  working  family,  and  "  my  elder 
brothers,"  he  states,  "  were  all  put  apprentices  to 
different  trades."  He  himself,  when  ten  years  old,  was 
taken  from  school  "  to  assist  my  father  in  his  business, 

' 


JACK    OF    ALL    TRADES 

which  was  that  of  a  tallow-chandler  and  sope-boiler,  a 
business  he  was  not  bred  to,  but  had  assumed  on  his 
arrival  in  New  England,  and  on  finding  his  dying  trade 
would  not  maintain  his  family,  being  in  little  request. 
Accordingly,  I  was  employed  in  cutting  wick  for  the 
candles,  filling  the  dipping  mold  and  the  molds  for  cast 
candles,  attending  the  shop,  going  of  errands,  etc." 
The  lad  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  work,  and  "  had  a 
strong  inclination  for  the  sea,  but  my  father  declared 
against  it " ;  so  Benjamin  worked  on  for  two  years, 
"  destined,"  he  feared,  to  become  a  tallow-chandler. 
"  But  my  dislike  to  the  trade  continuing,  my  father  was 
under  apprehension  that  if  he  did  not  find  one  more 
agreeable  I  should  break  away  and  get  to  sea,  as  his 
son  Josiah  had  done,  to  his  great  vexation."  The  desire 
for  a  sailor's  life  was  short-lived,  for  when,  at  sixteen, 
he  ran  off,  he  states  that  "  my  inclinations  for  the  sea 
were  by  this  time  Worn  out,  or  I  might  now  have  grati- 
fy'd  them."  Nor  did  a  longing  for  it  ever  recur.  On 
his  first  visit  to  England  he  found,  so  he  chronicles,  the 
voyage  "  not  a  pleasant  one,  as  we  had  a  good  deal  of 
bad  weather,"  and  on  the  return  trip  he  saw  cause  for 
congratulation  at  "  having  happily  completed  so  tedious 
and  dangerous  a  voyage." 

Once  convinced  that  his  son  would  not  contentedly 
accept  his  own  handicraft,  Josiah  Franklin  set  to  work 
to  find  out  one  more  suited  to  his  predilection. 

"  He  therefore  sometimes  took  me  to  walk  with  him,  and  see 
joiners,  bricklayers,  turners,  braziers,  etc.,  at  their  work,  that 
he  might  observe  my  inclination,  and  endeavor  to  fix  it  on 
some  trade  or  other  on  land.  .  .  .  My  father  at  last  fixed 

3°9 


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0   0 


O    '  O 


^ 


o  .0 

i 


0  0 


H^IP^M 

Ml 

V^l'i'  ;  4 
k  Q^  11W  V 


£ 

•     w 


I    z 

1    < 
u 


OS      X 

£  I 


i  ° 


JACK    OF   ALL    TRADES 

upon  the  cutler's  trade,  and  my  uncle  Benjamin's  son  Samuel, 
who  was  bred  to  that  business  in  London,  being  about  that 
time  established  in  Boston,  I  was  sent  to  be  with  him  some 
time  on  liking.  But  his  expectations  of  a  fee  with  me  dis- 
pleasing my  father,  I  was  taken  home  again." 

Eventually,  as  already  recorded,  the  boy  of  twelve 
was  apprenticed  to  printing.  Yet,  though  he  considered 
it  from  henceforth  his  special  calling,  and  was  ever  proud 
of  it,  he  was  at  moments  easily  led  away  to  other  voca- 
tions, and  as  soon  as  he  was  able  he  retired  from  all 
active  plying  of  the  "  art  and  mystery,"  save  as  an  oc- 
casional pastime,  giving  his  time  and  attention  to  other 
occupations. 

The  first  inclination  to  change  was  during  his  early 
London  visit.  He  relates  that  in  the  printing-office  he 
was  jocosely  called  the  "  Water- American,"  because  he 
preferred  that  beverage  to  beer;  but  the  title  might 
more  appropriately  have  been  given  him  because  of  his 
extreme  liking  for  aquatics.  "  I  learned  early  to  swim 
well,"  he  declared,  "  ever  delighted  with  this  exercise," 
and  as  a  child  "  practis'd  all  Thevenot's  motions  and 
positions,  added  some  of  my  own,  aiming  at  the  grace- 
ful and  easy  as  well  as  at  the  useful."  Late  in  life  he 
wrote :  "  When  I  was  a  boy  I  made  two  oval  palettes, 
each  about  ten  inches  long  and  six  broad,  with  a  hole 
for  the  thumb,  in  order  to  retain  it  fast  in  the  palm  of 
my  hand.  They  much  resembled  a  painter's  palettes. 
In  swimming  I  pushed  the  edges  of  these  forward,  and 
I  struck  the  water  with  their  flat  surfaces  as  I  drew 
them  back.  I  remember  I  swam  faster  by  means  of 
these  palettes,  but  they  fatigued  my  wrists."  In  another 
reminiscence  he  tells  of  a  second  boyish  device : 

3" 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"  I  amused  myself  one  day  with  flying  a  paper  kite  ;  and  ap- 
proaching the  bank  of  a  pond,  which  was  near  a  mile  broad, 
I  tied  the  string  to  a  stake  and  the  kite  ascended  to  a  very 
considerable  height  above  the  pond  while  I  was  swimming. 
In  a  little  time,  being  desirous  of  amusing  myself  with  my 
kite,  and  enjoying  at  the  same  time  the  pleasure  of  swimming, 
I  returned,  and  loosing  from  the  stake  the  string  with  the  little 
stick  which  was  fastened  to  it,  went  again  into  the  water,  where 
I  found  that,  lying  on  my  back  and  holding  the  stick  in  my 
hands,  I  was  drawn  along  the  surface  of  the  water  in  a  very 
agreeable  manner.  Having  then  engaged  another  boy  to  carry 
my  clothes  round  the  pond,  to  a  place  which  I  pointed  out  to 
him  on  the  other  side,  I  began  to  cross  the  pond  with  my  kite, 
which  carried  me  quite  over  without  the  least  fatigue  and  with 
the  greatest  pleasure  imaginable.  I  was  only  obliged  occa- 
sionally to  halt  a  little  in  my  course  and  resist  its  progress 
when  it  appeared  that,  by  following  too  quick,  I  lowered  the 
kite  too  much ;  by  doing  which  occasionally  I  made  it  rise 
again.  I  have  never  since  that  time  practised  this  singular 
mode  of  swimming,  though  I  think  it  not  impossible  to  cross 
in  this  manner  from  Dover  to  Calais.  The  packet-boat,  how- 
ever, is  still  preferable." 

This  skill  in  the  water  remained  with  Franklin  all 
through  his  life.  In  1725,  going-  to  Chelsea  with  some 
gentlemen  by  water,  "  in  our  return,  at  the  request  of 
the  company  ...  I  stripped  and  leaped  into  the  river, 
and  swam  from  near  Chelsea  to  Blackfryar's,  perform- 
ing on  the  way  many  feats  of  activity,  both  upon  and 
under  the  water,  that  surpris'd  and  pleas'd  those  to 
whom  they  were  novelties."  As  a  result, 

"  I  was,  to  my  surprise,  sent  for  by  a  great  man  I  knew  only 
by  name,  a  Sir  William  Wyndham,  and  I  waited  upon  him. 
He  had  heard  by  some  means  or  other  of  my  swimming  from 
Chelsea  to  Blackfriar's,  and  of  my  teaching  Wygate  and  an- 
other young  man  to  swim  in  a  few  hours.  He  had  two  sons, 
about  to  set  out  on  their  travels ;  he  wish'd  to  have  them  first 
taught  swimming,  and  proposed  to  gratify  me  handsomely  if  I 

312 


JACK    OF   ALL   TRADES 

would  teach  them.  They  were  not  yet  come  to  town,  and  my 
stay  was  uncertain,  so  I  could  not  undertake  it ;  but  from  this 
incident  I  thought  it  likely  that,  if  I  were  to  remain  in  Eng- 
land and  open  a  swimming  school,  I  might  get  a  good  deal  of 
money ;  and  it  struck  me  so  strongly,  that,  had  the  overture 
been  sooner  made  me,  probably  I  should  not  so  soon  have 
returned  to  America." 


SAMUEL   FRANKLIN. 


From  the  portrait  in  the  possession  of  Samuel  Franklin  Emmons, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

A  more  notable  feat  than  this  swim  from  Chelsea  to 
Blackfriars  was  performed  by  Franklin  in  his  voyage 
back  to  America,  a  few  months  later,  when,  in  the  open 
ocean,  he  "  leap'd  overboard,  and  swam  around  the  ship 
to  wash  myself."  There  is  small  wonder,  after  this 
exhibition  of  skill  and  confidence,  that  Franklin  felt 
some  irritation  over  an  incident  which  he  described  to 
a  correspondent  only  a  few  months  before  his  death  : 

"The  letter  of  yours  enclosed  is  from  the  widow  of  a  Jew, 
who,  happening  to  be  one  of  a  number  of  passengers,  that 

3'3 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

were  about  forty  years  ago  in  a  stageboat  going  to  New  York, 
and  which,  by  the  unskilful  management  of  the  boatman,  over- 
set the  canoe  from  whence  I  was  endeavoring  to  get  on  board 
her.  near  Staten  Island,  has  ever  since  worried  me  with  de- 
mands of  a  gratia  for  having,  as  he  pretended,  been  instru- 
mental in  saving  my  life ;  though  that  was  in  no  danger,  as 
we  were  near  the  shore,  and  you  know  what  an  expert  swim- 
mer I  am,  and  he  was  no  more  of  any  service  to  me  in  stop- 
ping the  boat  to  take  me  in  than  every  other  passenger ;  to  all 
whom  I  gave  a  liberal  entertainment  at  the  tavern  when  we 
arrived  at  New  York,  to  their  general  satisfaction,  at  the  time  ; 
but  this  Haynes  never  saw  me  afterwards,  at  New  York,  or 
Brunswick,  or  Philadelphia,  that  he  did  not  dun  me  for  money 
on  the  pretence  of  his  being  poor,  and  having  been  so  happy 
as  to  be  instrumental  in  saving  my  life,  which  was  really  in  no 
danger.  In  this  way  he  got  of  me  sometimes  a  double  Joan- 
nes, sometimes  a  Spanish  doubloon,  and  never  less  ;  how  much 
in  the  whole  I  do  not  know,  having  kept  no  account  of  it ; 
but  it  must  have  been  a  very  considerable  sum  ;  and  as  he  has 
neither  incurred  any  risk,  nor  was  at  any  trouble  in  my  behalf, 
I  have  long  since  thought  him  well  paid  for  any  little  expense 
of  humanity  he  might  have  felt  on  the  occasion.  He  seems, 
however,  to  have  left  me  to  his  widow  as  part  of  her  dowry." 

Even  in  the  last  years  of  his  life  Franklin  illustrated 
his  expertness,  for  at  nearly  eighty  years  of  age  he 
relates  that  he  "  went  at  noon  to  bathe  in  Martin's  salt- 
water hot-bath,  and,  floating  on  my  back,  fell  asleep, 
and  slept  near  an  hour  by  my  watch,  without  sinking 
or  turning!  A  thing  I  never  did  before,  and  should 
hardly  have  thought  possible."  His  fondness  for  water 
led  him  to  claim  that  "  the  exercise  of  swimming  is  one 
of  the  most  healthy  arid  agreeable  in  the  world.  After 
having  swam  for  an  hour  or  two  in  the  evening,  one 
sleeps  coolly  the  whole  night,  even  during  the  most 
ardent  heat  of  summer.  Perhaps,  the  pores  being 
cleansed,  the  insensible  perspiration  increases  and  occa- 

3H 


JACK    OF   ALL    TRADES 

sions  this  coolness.  ...  I  speak  from  my  own  experi- 
ence, frequently  repeated,  and  that  of  others,  to  whom 
I  have  recommended  this." 

From  becoming  a  swimming-teacher  Franklin  was 
dissuaded  by  a  Philadelphia  merchant,  Mr.  Denham, 
who  induced  him  as  well  to  leave  Watts's  printing- 
office. 

"  He  propos'd  to  take  me  over  as  his  clerk,  to  keep  his  books, 
in  which  he  would  instruct  me,  copy  his  letters,  and  attend  the 
store.  He  added,  that,  as  soon  as  I  should  be  acquainted 
with  mercantile  business,  he  would  promote  me  by  sending  me 
with  a  cargo  of  flour  and  bread,  etc.,  to  the  West  Indies,  and 
procure  me  commissions  from  others  which  would  be  profit- 
able ;  and,  if  I  manag'd  well,  would  establish  me  handsomely. 
The  thing  pleas'd  me ;  for  I  was  grown  tired  of  London,  re- 
membered with  pleasure  the  happy  months  I  had  spent  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  wish'd  again  to  see  it ;  therefore  I  immedi- 
ately agreed  on  the  terms  of  fifty  pounds  a  year,  Pennsylvania 
money  ;  less,  indeed,  than  my  present  gettings  as  a  compositor, 
but  affording  a. better  prospect.  .  .  .  Mr.  Denham  took  a  store 
in  Water-street,  where  we  open'd  our  goods ;  I  attended  the 
business  diligently,  studied  accounts,  and  grew,  in  a  little  time, 
expert  at  selling  .  .  .  but,  in  the  beginning  of  February, 
1726/7,  when  I  had  just  pass'd  my  twenty-first  year,  we  were 
both  taken  ill.  ...  I  forget  what  his  distemper  was ;  it  held 
him  a  long  time,  and  at  length  carried  him  off.  He  left  me  a 
small  legacy  in  a  nuncupative  will,  as  a  token  of  his  kindness 
for  me,  and  he  left  me  once  more  to  the  wide  world ;  for  the 
store  was  taken  into  the  care  of  his  executors,  and  my  employ- 
ment under  him  ended." 

Left  in  the  lurch  by  this  loss  of  position,  Franklin 
returned  to  printing  for  a  livelihood,  with  the  success 
already  described.  But,  though  his  chief  trade,  it  was 
not  his  only  one,  even  when  he  was  most  actively  en- 
gaged in  it.  As  a  natural  adjunct  he  established  a 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

bindery,  and  took  an  interest  in  a  paper-mill,  his  news- 
paper informing  the  public  that  "  Ready  Money  for  old 
Rags  may  be  had  of  the  Printer  hereof."  "  At  the 
time  I  establish'd  myself  in  Pennsylvania  there  was 
not  a  bookseller's  shop  in  any  of  the  colonies  to  the 
southward  of  Boston.  In  New  York  and  Philad'a  the 
printers  were  indeed  stationers ;  they  sold  only  paper, 
etc.,  almanacs,  ballads,  and  a  few  books.  Those  who 
lov'd  reading  were  oblig'd  to  send  for  their  books  from 
London."  This  inconvenience  Franklin  ended  by  open- 
ing a  store  for  the  sale  of  European  works,  advertising 
his  importations  in  the  "  Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  or  by 
the  issue  of  pamphlet  catalogues.  He  also  established 
"  a  little  stationer's  shop,"  where  were  to  be  had  "  Chap- 
men's books,  Ballads;  Good  Writing  Paper;  Choice 
writing  Parchment ;  Cyphering  Slates  and  Pencils ; 
Holmans  Ink  Powders;  Ivory  Pocket  Books;  Pounce 
and  Pounce  boxes ;  Sealing  Wax ;  Wafers ;  Pencils ; 
Fountain  Pens ;  Choice  English  Quills ;  Brass  Ink 
Horns ;  Sand  Glasses  ;  Fine  Mezzotints ;  A  Great  Vari- 
ety of  Maps ;  Cheap  pictures  engraved  on  Copper  Plate 
of  all  Sorts  of  Birds,  Beasts,  Fishes,  Fruits,  Flowers, 
&c.  useful  to  such  as  would  learn  to  draw." 

These  various  commodities  the  shopkeeper  kept  in 
stock,  but  he  would  trade  in  anything  in  which  he  could 
see  a  chance  of  profit.  Despite  his  aversion  to  the 
business,  how  he  sold  consignments  of  the  Franklin 
"Crown  Soap"  has  already  been  told;  but  that  was 
only  one  of  many  ventures  he  took,  and  the  "  Gazette  " 
informed  its  readers  from  time  to  time  that  "the  Printer 
hereof"  had  for  sale  such  merchandise  as: 

316 


'  • "•'-- ^'- 


H4 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"  Very  good  Sack  at  6s  per  Gallon  " ;  "  Glaz'd  Fulling- 
Papers  and  Bonnet- Papers  "  ;  "  Very  good  Lampblack  "  ; 
"  Very  good  Chocolate  "  ;  "  Linseed  Oil  "  ;  "  Very  Good 
Coffee  "  ;  "  Compasses  and  Scales  "  ;  "  Seneka  Rattlesnake 
Root,  with  directions  how  to  use  it  in  the  Pleurisy,  &c."  ; 
"Dividers  and  Protractors";  "A  very  good  second  hand 
two-wheel  chaise  "  ;  "A  very  neat,  new  fashion'd  vehicle,  or 
four  wheel'd  chaise,  very  convenient  to  carry  weak  or  other 
sick  persons  old  or  young " ;  "  Good  Rhode  Island  Cheese 
and  Cod  Fish  "  ;  "  Quadrants  "  ;  "  Fore  staffs  "  ;  "  Noctur- 
nals "  ;  "  Mariners  Compasses  "  ;  "  Season'd  Merchantable 
Boards  "  ;  "  Coarse  and  fine  edgings  "  ;  "  Fine  broad  Scarlet 
Cloth,  fine  broad  black  Cloth,  fine  white  Thread  Hose,  and 
English  Sale  Duck  "  ;  "  Very  good  Iron  Stoves  "  ;  "A  Large 
Horse  fit  for  a  Chair  or  Saddle";  "The  True  and  Genuine 
Godfrey's  Cordial";  "Choice  Bohea  Tea";  "Very  good 
English  Saffron  "  ;  "  New  York  Lottery  Tickets"  ;  "  Choice 
Makrel  to  be  sold  by  the  Barrel" ;  "A  Large  Copper  Still"  ; 
"  Very  good  Spermacety  "  ;  "  Fine  Palm  Oyl  "  ;  "  Very  good 
Temple  Spectacles  "  ;  "A  New  Fishing  Net." 

A  stranger  mode  of  turning  a  penny  was  by  a  ven- 
ture now  and  again  in  indentured  or  bond  servants, 
being  such  immigrants  as  sold  their  service  for  a  stated 
number  of  years  in  return  for  a  passage  to  the  colonies. 
Franklin  would  occasionally  purchase  "  the  time,"  as 
the  expression  then  was,  of  some  of  these,  and  then  in  the 
columns  of  his  paper  would  insert  advertisements  of 
which  the  following  are  samples : 

"  A  Likely  Servant  Lad's  Time  to  be  disposed  of.  He  is  fit 
for  Country  or  Town  Business,  has  four  Years  to  serve,  and 
has  been  in  the  Country  a  Year  and  a  Half.  Enquire  of  the 
Printer." 

"  To  Be  Sold.  A  Likely  Servant  Woman,  having  three  Years 
and  a  half  to  Serve.  She  is  a  good  Spinner." 

"  To  be  Sold.  A  Likely  servant  lad,  about  15  years  of  age, 
and  has  6  years  to  serve." 

318 


JACK    OF   ALL   TRADES 

"  To  be  sold,  a  young  Servant  Welsh  Woman,  having  one 
Year  and  a  half  to  serve,  and  is  fit  for  Town  or  Country  Ser- 
vice. Enquire  of  the  Printer." 

"  To  be  Sold.  A  Likely  Dutch  Servant  Girl,  about  13  Years 
of  Age,  and  has  5  Years  to  serve." 

"  A  Likely  young  Woman's  Time  to  be  disposed  of,  about 
eighteen  Years  of  Age,  fit  for  Town  or  Country  Business,  and 
can  handle  her  Needle  well." 

"To  be  Sold,  An  Irish  Servant  Girls  Time :  She  has  Three 
Years  and  Three  Quarters  to  serve  ;  is  young,  and  fit  for  Town 
or  Country  Business." 

A  somewhat  kindred  but  more  regrettable  traffic  was 
one  in  slaves.  Though,  due  to  the  Friends,  there  was 
a  very  positive  public  sentiment  in  Philadelphia  against 
slavery,  and  still  more  against  the  buying  and  selling 
of  men,  Franklin  had  too  much  New  England  canni- 
ness  to  regard  it,  andkmade  many  a  venture  in  the  pur- 
chase and  sale  of  negroes,  his  newspaper  informing  the 
public  that 

"A  Likely  Young  Negro  Wench, who  is  a  good  Cook,  and  can 
Wash  well  is  to  be  disposed  of.  Enquire  of  the  Printer  hereof." 

"To  be  Sold.  A  Likely  young  Negroe  Wench,  about  18 
Years  of  Age,  speaks  good  English,  and  is  fit  for  either  Town 
or  Country.  Enquire  of  the  Printer  hereof." 

"  To  be  Sold.  A  Likely  Molatto  Girl,  aged  about  16  Years, 
has  had  the  Small  Pox,  is  fit  for  either  Town  or  Country,  to 
be  disposed  of  very  reasonable,  enquire  of  the  Printer  hereof." 

"  To  be  Sold,  A  Likely  young  Negroe  Fellow,  about  Twenty- 
six  Years  of  Age,  suitable  for  any  Farming  or  Plantation 
Business,  having  been  long  accustomed  to  it  and  has  had  the 
Small-Pox.  Enquire  of  the  Printer  hereof." 

"  To  be  Sold.  A  Negro  Man  Twenty-two  Years  of  Age,  of 
uncommon  Strength  and  Activity,  very  fit  for  a  Farmer,  or  a 
laborious  Trade,  he  understands  the  best  methods  of  managing 
Horses,  and  is  very  faithful  in  the  Employment :  Any  Person 

3»9 


THE    MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

that  wants  such  a  one  may  see  him  by  enquiring  of  the  Printer 
hereof." 

"  To  be  Sold.    A  Likely  Negro  woman,  with  a  man-child,  fit 
for  town  or  country  business.    Enquire  of  the  Printer  hereof." 


A 

CATALOGUE 

o  F 
CHOICE  AWD  VALUABLE 

BOOKS, 

CONSISTING    OP 

Nesf  600  Volumes,  in  moft  Faculties 
and  Sciences,  viz. 

DiviHiTYj  HISTORY  j  LAW,  MA» 
THEMATICS>  PHILOSOPHY,  PHY- 
SIC, POETRY,  &c> 

Wkkh  will  begin' 
TO  Bfi  SOL  D  for  Ready  Money  only,  by  BM  j; 

Ft*ti<ii||t,j  at  the  foJi-Ojjitt  in  Pkilathlphia,  ', 
on  Wedpefday,  the  irJi  of  4^/71744.  at  Nine  •• 
•«tCl*feih',fce.  Morning ;  And,  for  Difpateh,  the  • 
lowed  ?rte  is  mark'd  in  each  Book. 
Tne&fla,  to  «winu«  Three  W«k»,  and  no  longer  ;  i 
SDA  wkrt  then  remains  wffl  be  fold  at  an  advanced  ' 
Frit*. 

Thoft  Perfons  {hat  live  remote,  by  fending  their 
Orders  and  Money  to  faid  B.  FRANKLIN,  niay 
defend  on  the  fame  JuIKce  as  if  prcfenr. 


A    CATAI.CXJUK. 
Owned  by  T.  J.  McKee. 


"  To  Be  Sold,  A  Lusty,  young,  Negroe  Woman,  fit  for 
Country  Business,  she  has  had  the  Smallpox,  and  Meazles. 
Enquire  of  the  Printers  hereof. 

320 


JACK   OF   ALL   TRADES 

"  To  be  Sold.  A  Prime  able  young  Negro  man,  fit  for  labori- 
ous work,  in  town  or  country,  that  has  had  the  smallpox :  As 
also  a  middle  aged  Negro  man,  that  has  likewise  had  the 
smallpox.  Enquire  of  the  printer  hereof :  Or  otherwise  they 
will  be  expos'd  to  sale  by  publick  vendue,  on  Saturday  the 
nth  of  April  next,  at  12  o'clock,  at  the  Indian-king,  in  Mar- 
ket-street." 

Some  of  these  slaves  he  procured  from  New  England, 
where,  as  population  grew  in  density,  the  need  for  them 
passed,  leading  to  their  sale  in  the  colonies  to  the 
southward ;  and  there  was  not  always  a  profit,  for 
Franklin,  of  one  purchase  of  husband  and  wife,  wrote 
to  his  mother:  "We  conclude  to  sell  them  both  the 
first  good  opportunity,  for  we  do  not  like  negro  ser- 
vants," with  a  result  that  "  We  got  again  about  half 
what  we  lost."-  In  spite  of  this  prejudice,  Franklin 
took  with  him  two  negro  servants  to  England  on  his 
second  visit,  with  slight  benefit,  for  one,  who  "  was  of 
little  use,  and  often  in  mischief,"  ran  off  within  a  year, 
and  the  other  behaved  only  "  as  well  as  I  could  expect, 
in  a  country  where  there  are  many  occasions  of  spoiling 
servants,  if  they  are  ever  so  good."  "  He  has  as  few 
faults  as  most  of  them,"  the  philosopher  observed, 
"  and  I  see  with  only  one  eye  and  hear  only  with  one 
ear;  so  we  rub  on  pretty  comfortably." 

Franklin,  as  he  grew  in  years,  came  to  disapprove 
heartily  of  the  whole  slave  system,  and  he  expressed 
satisfaction  "  that  a  disposition  to  abolish  slavery  pre- 
vails in  North  America,  that  many  Pennsylvanians  have 
set  their  slaves  at  liberty,  and  that  even  the  Virginia 
Assembly  have  petitioned  the  king  for  permission  to 
make  a  law  for  preventing  the  importation  of  more 

321 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

into  the  colony."  When  the  initial  abolition  society  in 
America  was  formed,  he  became  its  president,  and  his 
name  was  signed  to  the  first  petition  for  the  abolition 
of  the  slave-trade  ever  sent  to  Congress,  an  act  which 
resulted  in  his  being  personally  vituperated  on  the  floor 
of  that  body,  less  than  a  month  before  his  death.  The 
debate  on  this  petition  drew  from  him  the  last  public 
paper  he  ever  penned,  in  which,  with  his  usual  "  So- 
cratic  "  cleverness,  he  took  all  the  arguments  advanced 
by  the  favorers  of  slavery,  and  by  putting  them  into 
the  mouth  of  an  Algerine,  as  reasons  for  continuing  the 
holding  of  Europeans  in  bondage,  made  each  one  be- 
come a  reason  for  ending  the  system. 

As  Franklin  was  an  instinctive  trader,  so  he  was  a 
natural  artisan.  "  It  has  ever  .  .  .  been  a  pleasure  to 
me  to  see  good  workmen  handle  their  tools,"  he  remarks 
in  his  autobiography;  "and  it  has  been  useful  to  me, 
having  learnt  ...  to  be  able  to  do  little  jobs  myself 
in  my  house  when  a  workman  could  not  readily  be  got, 
and  to  construct  little  machines  for  my  experiments, 
while  the  intention  of  making  the  experiment  was  fresh 
and  warm  in  my  mind."  How  he,  in  his  printing- office, 
contrived  molds,  made  printers'  ink,  constructed  a  cop- 
perplate press,  cut  ornaments  for  the  paper  money,  and 
in  other  ways  proved  that  his  abilities  were  not  merely 
intellectual,  is  told  elsewhere.  His  scientific  writings 
continually  describe  "  little  machines  that  I  had  roughly 
made  for  myself."  So,  too,  though  almost  wholly 
without  an  art  instinct,  he  made  diagrams  and  sketches 
to  illustrate  and  explain  his  writings,  that  prove  a  fair 
knowledge  of  perspective  and  a  distinct  knack  of  fingers. 

322 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

He  even  essayed  at  times  to  do  an  artist's  work.  Long 
after  his  retirement  from  active  printing,  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  secured  his  aid  in  the  design  of  their 
currency,  and  he  not  merely  sketched  the  cuts,  but 
having  in  some  of  his  studies  discovered  that  the  veins 
of  leaves,  like  the  lines  of  the  finger-ends,  were  never 
alike,  he  suggested  the  use  of  a  different  leaf  for  each 
denomination,  thus  making  counterfeiting  difficult  For 
his  "  Gazette  "  he  engraved  a  crude  "type-metal  map 
of  the  siege  of  Louisburg,  which,  so  far  as  known,  is 
the  first  attempt  of  a  paper  to  illustrate  news.  So  in 
his  pamphlet  entitled  "  Plain  Truth  "  he  designed  and 
graved  a  cut  of  "  Hercules  and  the  Wagoner."  Dur- 
ing Stamp  Act  times  he  made  a  symbolical  print  which 
had  considerable  vogue.  While  serving  in  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the 
committee  to  prepare  devices  for  a  great  seal,  and  he 
suggested  "  Moses  lifting  up  his  wand  and  dividing  the 
Red  Sea,  and  Pharaoh  in  his  chariot  overwhelmed  by 
the  waters,"  with  the  motto,  "  Rebellion  to  tyrants  is 
obedience  to  God,"  which  was  adopted  by  the  com- 
mittee, but  rejected  by  Congress.  In  1782,  of  his  own 
volition  and  at  his  own  charge,  he  had  struck  after  his 
ideas  a  medal  to  commemorate  the  Revolution,  which  he 
reports  was  "  mighty  well  received,  and  gives  general 
pleasure  "  in  Paris,  and  which  he  hopes  will  be  equally 
liked  in  America.  A  greater  service  he  rendered  to  art 
was  in  selecting  Houdon  for  the  execution  of  the  bust 
of  Washington  voted  by  Virginia,  and  in  persuading  that 
sculptor  to  undertake  the  commission. 

However  little  of  an  artist  he  may  have  been,  a  num- 

324 


JACK    OF   ALL   TRADES 

her  of  his  most  intimate  friends  were  of  that  profession, 
and  he  shows  the  interest  of  a  cultivated  man  in  their 
work.  With  Benjamin  West  a  friendship  was  formed 
in  Pennsylvania  long  before  the  painter  was  known  as 
such ;  when  he  went  to  London,  Franklin  gave  him 
letters  of  introduction  that  helped  him  materially,  and 
the  two  corresponded  on  terms  of  close  intimacy  during 
the  rest  of  Franklin's  life.  To  Patience  Wright,  another 
American,  and  the  Mme.  Tussaud  of  her  day,  he  gave 
aid  and  friendship,  and  helped  her  son  when  he  came 
to  Paris  as  a  would-be  artist,  afterward  consenting  to 
sit  to  him  for  one  of  the  first  portraits  the  artist  ever 
painted.  In  London  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  John 
Flaxman,  when  his  career  was  but  just  beginning,  and 
he  it  was  who  brought  the  young  fellow  to  the  attention 
of  Josiah  Wedgwood.  Franklin  had  early  in  life  become 
interested  in  the  problem  of  printing  on  china,  and  this 
served  to  give  him  a  common  interest  with  Wedgwood, 
and  led  to  a  lifelong  friendship  with  the  artist-potter. 
He  even  thought  himself  first  in  the  field  in  this  pro- 
cess, writing  an  engraver  who  had  sent  him  some  speci- 
mens, in  reference  to  the  invention : 

"I  know  not  who  pretends  to  that  of  copper-plate  engravings 
for  earthen-ware,  and  I  am  not  disposed  to  contest  the  honor 
with  anybody,  as  the  improvement  in  taking  impressions  not 
directly  from  the  plate,  but  from  printed  paper,  applicable  by 
that  means  to  other  than  flat  forms,  is  far  beyond  my  first  idea. 
But  I  have  reason  to  apprehend,  that  I  might  have  given  the 
hint  on  which  that  improvement  was  made ;  for,  more  than 
twenty  years  since,  I  wrote  to  Dr.  Mitchell  from  America, 
proposing  to  him  the  printing  of  square  tiles,  for  ornamenting 
chimneys  from  copper  plates,  describing  the  manner  in  which 
I  thought  it  might  be  done,  and  advising  the  borrowing  from 

325 


JOSIAH  WEDGWOOD.      (PAINTED   BY  REYNOLDS.) 

In  the  possession  of  Earl  Crawford. 


JACK    OF   ALL   TRADES 

the  booksellers  the  plates  that  had  been  used  in  a  thin  folio, 
called  '  Moral  Virtue  Delineated,'  for  the  purpose.  The 
Dutch  Delftware  tiles  were  much  used  in  America,  which  are 
only  or  chiefly  Scripture  histories,  wretchedly  scrawled.  I 
wished  to  have  those  moral  prints  which  were  originally  taken 
from  Horace's  poetical  figures,  introduced  on  tiles,  which, 
being  about  our  chimneys,  and  constantly  in  the  eyes  of  chil- 
dren when  by  the  fireside,  might  give  parents  an  opportunity, 
in  explaining  them,  to  impress  moral  sentiments ;  and  I  gave 
expectations  of  great  demand  for  them  if  executed.  Dr. 
Mitchell  wrote  to  me,  in  answer,  that  he  had  communicated 
my  scheme  to  several  of  the  principal  artists  in  the  earthen 
way  about  London,  who  rejected  it  as  impracticable ;  and  it 
was  not  till  some  years  after  that  I  first  saw  an  enamelled 
snuff-box,  which  I  was  sure  was  from  a  copper  plate,  though 
the  curvature  of  the  form  made  me  wonder  how  the  impres- 
sion was  taken." 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  Franklin,  however  much  a 
mechanic,  and  however  fertile-minded,  left  behind  him 
so  few  inventions  of  any  great  value,  his  lightning-rod 
and  his  stove,  elsewhere  described,  being  his  only  im- 
portant discoveries.  Yet,  as  in  his  idea  of  printing  on 
china,  many  of  his  imperfect  ideas  could  have  been 
developed  into  very  valuable  improvements.  How  he 
experimented  in  stereotyping  has  already  been  told. 
Before  Argand  invented  his  lamp,  Franklin  had  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  a  burner  which  should  supply  a 
column  of  air  in  the  center.  He  made  an  essay  with  a 
bulrush,  without  success,  and,  according  to  JefTerson, 
"  His  occupations  did  not  permit  him  to  repeat  and  ex- 
tend his  trials  to  the  introduction  of  a  larger  column  of 
air  than  could  pass  through  the  stem  of  a  bull-rush." 
Yet  he  seems  to  have  achieved  a  partial  success,  for  a 
visitor  to  his  house  noted  "  a  lamp,  which,  with  only 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

three  small  wicks  gives  a  luster  equal  to  six  candles.  A 
pipe  is  introduced  into  the  midst,  which  supplies  fresh 
and  cool  air  to  the  lights."  Having  found  an  account 
of  a  "  well  known  practice  of  the  Chinese,  to  divide  the 
hold  of  a  great  ship  into  a  number  of  separate  chambers 
by  partitions  tight  caulked,"  he  suggested  that  the 
system  might  with  advantage  be  introduced  into  ship- 
building, as  a  safeguard  to  life  and  property ;  but  the 
subject  is  so  briefly  dwelt  upon  as  to  show  that  he  at- 
tached little  value  to  what  has  since  come  to  be  of  such 
consequence.  So,  contending  that  "  men  do  not  act  like 
reasonable  creatures  when  they  build  for  themselves 
combustible  dwellings,  in  which  they  are  every  day 
obliged  to  use  fire,"  he  drew  up  a  paper  on  how  houses 
could  be  better  protected  from  the  risk.  When  he  him- 
self built,  he  evolved  a  system  tending  to  the  modern 
fire-proof  construction  by  "  a  few  precautions  not  gen- 
erally used,  to  wit :  none  of  the  wooden  work  of  one 
room  communicates  with  the  wooden  work  of  any  other 
room,  and  all  the  floors,  and  even  the  steps  of  the  stairs, 
are  plastered  close." 

Of  minor  improvements  Franklin  perfected  more. 
He  first  made,  for  his  own  use,  the  double  spectacles 
with  lenses  curved  for  near  and  far  sight.  He  con- 
structed a  clock  "  with  three  wheels  only,  which  showed 
hours,  minutes  and  seconds."  Though  not  the  first 
to  make  letter-copying  presses,  he  was  consulted  by 
Watt,  and  suggested  several  improvements  which 
made  them  more  effective.  For  his  own  convenience 
he  worked  out  an  artificial  arm  for  taking  books  from 
shelves  out  of  reach.  In  his  library,  "  below  the  grate, 

328 


JACK   OF   ALL   TRADES 

on  the  hearth,  there  was  a  small  iron  plate  or  trap- 
door, about  five  or  six  inches  square,  with  a  hinge 
and  a  small  ring  to  raise  it  by.  When  this  door  or 
valve  was  raised,  a  current  of  air,  from  the  cellar, 
rushed  up  through  the  grate  to  rekindle  the  fire."  At 
the  head  of  his  bed  "  there  were  two  cords ;  one  was  a 
bell-pull ;  and  the  other,  when  pulled,  raised  an  iron 
bolt,  about  an  inch  square,  and  nine  or  ten  inches  long, 
which  dropped  through  staples,  at  the  top  of  the  door, 
when  shut,  and  until  this  bolt  was  raised,  the  door  could 
not  be  opened."  In  1787  Washington,  as  he  phrased 
it  in  his  diary,  "  visited  a  Machine  at  Dr.  Franklin's 
(called  a  Mangle)  for  pressing,  in  place  of  ironing  clothes 
from  the  wash,  which  Machine  from  the  facility  with 
which  it  despatches -business  is  well  calculated  for  Table 
cloths  &  such  articles  as  have  not  pleats  &  irregular 
foldings  and  would  be  very  useful  in  all  large  families." 
Such  are  samples  of  his  almost  numberless  devices  and 
improvements. 

An  invention  not  to  be  passed  over  was  a  musical 
instrument,  of  which  Franklin  thought  so  highly  as  to 
believe  that  it  would  entirely  supersede  the  piano  and 
harpsichord.  In  London,  during  his  second  visit, 
Franklin  heard  a  Mr.  Delaval,  "  a  most  ingenious  mem- 
ber of  our  Royal  Society,"  play  melodies  by  rubbing 
his  fingers  upon  the  edges  of  glass  bowls  which  had 
been  first  tuned  "  by  putting  into  them  water  more  or 
less,  as  each  note  required."  "Being  charmed  by  the 
sweetness  of  its  tones  and  the  music  he  produced  from 
it,"  Franklin  set  about  perfecting  the  idea  into  an 
instrument.  He  had  blown  a  number  of  glass  half- 

329 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

spheres  of  different  sizes,  and  these  he  tuned  by  grind- 
ing away  the  edge  until  they  were  in  harmony  with  the 
notes  of  the  harpsichord.  Having  obtained  this  result, 
he  placed  thirty-seven  of  them,  "  sufficient  for  three 
octaves  with  all  the  semi-tones,"  upon  a  spindle,  which, 
by  means  of  a  wheel  and  pedal,  could  be  revolved. 
"  This  instrument  is  played  upon  by  sitting  before  the 
middle  of  the  set  of  glasses  as  before  the  keys  of  the 
harpsichord,  turning  them  with  the  foot  and  wetting 
them  with  a  sponge  and  clean  water,  the  fingers  should 
be  first  a  little  soaked  in  water,  and  quite  free  from  all 
greasiness;  a  little  fine  chalk  upon  them  is  sometimes 
useful,  to  make  them  catch  the  glass  and  bring  out  the 
tones  more  readily.  Both  hands  are  used,  by  which 
means  different  parts  are  played  together.  Observe, 
the  tones  are  best  drawn  out  when  the  glass  is  turned 
from  the  ends  of  the  fingers,  not  when  they  turn  to 
them."  Franklin  named  it  the  armonica,  "in  honor," 
so  he  wrote  an  Italian,  "  of  your  musical  language,"  and 
claimed  that  the  "  advantages  of  this  instrument  are 
that  its  tones  are  incomparably  sweet  beyond  those  of 
any  other;  that  they  may  be  swelled  and  softened  at 
pleasure  by  stronger  or  weaker  pressures  of  the  finger, 
and  continued  to  any  length ;  and  that  the  instrument 
being  once  well  tuned,  never  again  wants  tuning."  He 
himself  took  great  pleasure  in  playing  upon  it,  and  an 
amusing  glimpse  is  obtained  of  him  during  his  last  years 
by  a  paragraph  of  one  of  his  letters,  in  which  he  said : 
"  M.  Pagin  did  me  the  honor  of  visiting  me  yesterday. 
He  is  assuredly  one  of  the  best  men  possible,  for  he  had 
the  patience  to  listen  to  me  playing  an  air  on  the  Ar- 

33° 


JOHN   FLAXMAN.       (PAINTED  BY  GEORGE  ROMNEY.) 
In  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  London. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

monica,  and  to  hear  it  to  the  end."  Again,  Mme.  Bril- 
lon,  seeking  to  tempt  him  to  her  home,  promises  that 
"  Father  Pagin  will  play  the  God  of  Love  on  the  violin, 
I  the  march  on  the  piano,  you  Little  Birds  on  the  har- 
monica "  ;  and  the  same  writer,  in  describing  their  future 
life  in  heaven,  prophesies  that  "  M.  Mesmer  will  be  con- 
tented with  playing  on  the  harmonica  without  boring 
us  with  electric  fluid." 

Franklin  was  a  performer  on  more  than  the  armonica, 
for,  previous  to  his  development  of  it,  he  could  play  on 
the  harp,  the  guitar,  and  the  violin.  Referring  to  a 
present,  he  told  the  donor  that  he  should  "  never  touch 
the  sweet  strings  of  the  British  lyre,  without  remember- 
ing my  British  friends,  and  particularly  the  kind  giver 
of  the  instrument."  In  France  a  friend  wrote  him  that 
he  had  "  searched  for  harps  everywhere  without  being 
able  to  find  any,"  and  offers  to  procure  him  "  a  piano 
forte,  if  it  will  supply  the  place  of  the  harp."  This 
may  not  have  been  for  his  own  use,  however,  for  Frank- 
lin assured  Mme.  Brillon  that,  in  the  forty  years  he 
would  probably  have  in  heaven  before  her  advent,  he 
should  have  time  enough  "  to  practise  on  the  armonica, 
and  perhaps  I  shall  play  well  enough  to  be  worthy  to 
accompany  you  on  your  pianoforte  " ;  and  in  this  case 
"  we  shall  have  every  now  and  then  some  little  con- 
certs." He  even  seems  to  have  turned  his  hand  to  com- 
posing, for  the  same  lady  acknowledged  the  receipt  of 
"your  music  engraved  in  America";  but  it  has  not 
been  possible  to  identify  the  piece. 

Franklin's  taste  in  music  tended  to  the  simple  forms. 
Mme.  Brillon's  usual  bribes,  musically,  were  promises 

332 


JACK    OF   ALL   TRADES 

of  "  carols  "  and  "  Scotch  airs,"  and  that  in  this  she  was 
trying  to  please  his  taste  is  shown  by  something  he 
wrote  Lord  Kames :  "  The  pleasure  artists  feel  in  hear- 
ing much  of  [the  music]  composed  in  modern  taste,  is 
not  the  natural  pleasure  arising  from  melody  or  har- 
mony of  sounds,  but  of  the  same  kind  with  the  pleasure 
we  feel  on  seeing  the  surprising  feats  of  tumblers  and 
rope-dancers,  who  execute  difficult  things.  ...  I  have 
sometimes,  at  a  concert,  attended  by  a  common  audi- 
ence, placed  myself  so  as  to  see  all  their  faces,  and 
observed  no  signs  of  pleasure  in  them  during  the  per- 
formance of  a  great  part  that  was  admired  by  the  per- 
formers themselves ;  while  a  plain  old  Scotch  tune,  which 
they  disdained,  and  could  scarcely  be  prevailed  on  to 
play,  gave  manifest  and  general  delight." 

"  Give  me  leave,  on  this  occasion,"  he  said  in  another  let- 
ter to  Kames,  "  to  extend  a  little  the  sense  of  your  position, 
that  '  melody  and  harmony  are  separately  agreeable,  and  in 
union  delightful/  and  to  give  it  as  my  opinion,  that  the  reason 
why  the  Scotch  tunes  have  lived  so  long,  and  will  probably  live 
forever  (if  they  escape  being  stifled  in  modern  affected  orna- 
ment), is  merely  this,  that  they  are  really  compositions  of 
melody  and  harmony  united,  or  rather  that  their  melody  is 
harmony.  I  mean  the  simple  tunes  sung  by  a  single  voice.  As 
this  will  appear  paradoxical,  I  must  explain  my  meaning.  In 
common  acceptation,  indeed,  only  an  agreeable  succession  of 
sounds  is  called  melody,  and  only  the  coexistence  of  agreeable 
sounds,  harmony.  But,  since  the  memory  is  capable  of  retain- 
ing for  some  moments  a  perfect  idea  of  the  pitch  of  a  past 
sound,  so  as  to  compare  with  it  the  pitch  of  a  succeeding  sound, 
p.nd  judge  truly  of  their  agreement  or  disagreement,  there  may 
and  does  arise  from  thence  a  sense  of  harmony  between  the 
present  and  past  sounds,  equally  pleasing  with  that  between  two 
present  sounds.  Now  the  construction  of  the  old  Scotch  tunes 
is  this,  that  almost  every  succeeding  emphatical  note  is  a  third, 

333 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

a  fifth,  an  octave,  or  in  short  some  note  that  is  in  concord  with 
the  preceding  note.  Thirds  are  chiefly  used,  which  are  very 
pleasing  concords.  I  use  the  word  emphatical  to  distinguish 
those  notes  which  have  a  stress  laid  on  them  in  singing  the 
tune,  from  the  lighter  connecting  notes,  that  serve  merely,  like 
grammar  articles  in  common  speech,  to  tack  the  whole  to- 
gether. .  .  .  The  connoisseurs  in  modern  music  will  say,  I 
have  no  taste ;  but  I  cannot  help  adding,  that  I  believe  our 
ancestors,  in  hearing  a  good  song,  distinctly  articulated,  sung 
to  one  of  those  tunes,  and  accompanied  by  the  harp,  felt  more 
real  pleasure  than  is  communicated  by  the  generality  of  modern 
operas,  exclusive  of  that  arising  from  the  scenery  and  dancing. 
Most  tunes  of  late  composition,  not  having  this  natural  har- 
mony united  with  their  melody,  have  recourse  to  the  artificial 
harmony  of  a  bass,  and  other  accompanying  parts.  This  sup- 
port, in  my  opinion,  the  old  tunes  do  not  need,  and  are  rather 
confused  than  aided  by  it.  Whoever  has  heard  James  Oswald 
play  them  on  his  violoncello,  will  be  less  inclined  to  dispute  this 
with  irie.  I  have  more  than  once  seen  tears  of  pleasure  in  the 
eyes  of  his  auditors ;  and  yet,  I  think,  even  his  playing  those 
tunes  would  please  more,  if  he  gave  them  less  modern  orna- 
ment." 

The  inventing  faculty  is  seldom  to  be  found  united 
with  a  business  one;  yet  Franklin  was  not  merely  a 
good  trader,  but  a  good  executive.  In  1737  he  was 
offered  the  position  of  postmaster  of  Philadelphia,  "  ac- 
cepted it  readily,  and  found  it  of  great  advantage ;  for, 
tho'  the  salary  was  small,  it  facilitated  the  correspon- 
dence that  improv'd  my  newspaper,  increas'd  the  number 
demanded,  as  well  as  the  advertisements  to  be  inserted, 
so  that  it  came  to  afford  me  a  considerable  income." 
His  good  management  of  the  office  led  presently  to  the 
additional  appointment  of  controller  "  in  regulating 
several  offices,"  and  upon  the  death  of  the  Postmaster- 
General,  in  1753,  he  was  appointed,  jointly  with  Mr. 

334 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

William  Hunter,  to  succeed  him.  "  We  were  to  have 
six  hundred  pounds  a  year  between  us,  if  we  could  make 
that  sum  out  of  the  profits  of  the  office.  To  do  this,  a 
variety  of  improvements  were  necessary ;  some  of  these 
were  inevitably  at  first  expensive,  so  that  in  the  first 
four  years  the  office  became  above  nine  hundred  pounds 
in  debt  to  us.  But  it  soon  after  began  to  repay  us," 
and  before  the  British  government  removed  Franklin,  for 
political  reasons,  in  1774,  "  we  had  brought  it  to  yield 
three  times  as  much  clear  revenue  to  the  crown  as  the 
postoffice  of  Ireland."  Concerning  this  loss  of  place, 
Franklin  felt  extremely  bitter,  writing : 

"  I  received  a  written  notice  from  the  secretary  of  the  general 
post-office,  that  his  Majesty's  postmaster-general  found  it  neces- 
sary to  dismiss  me  from  my  office  of  deputy  postmaster-general 
in  North  America.  The  expression  was  well  chosen,  for  in 
truth  they  were  under  a  necessity  of  doing  it ;  it  was  not  their 
own  inclination  ;  they  had  no  fault  to  find  with  my  conduct  in 
the  office  ;  they  knew  my  merit  in  it,  and  that  if  it  was  now  an 
office  of  value  it  had  become  such  chiefly  through  my  care  and 
good  management ;  that  it  was  worth  nothing  when  given  to 
me ;  it  would  not  then  pay  the  salary  allowed  me,  and  unless 
it  did  I  was  not  to  expect  it ;  and  that  it  now  produces  near 
three  thousand  pounds  a  year  clear  to  the  treasury  here.  They 
had  beside  a  personal  regard  for  me.  But  as  the  post-offices 
in  all  the  principal  towns  are  growing  daily  more  and  more 
valuable  by  the  increase  of  correspondence,  the  officers  being 
paid  commissions  instead  of  salaries,  the  ministers  seem  to  in- 
tend, by  directing  me  to  be  displaced  on  this  occasion,  to  hold 
out  to  them  all  an  example,  that  if  they  are  not  corrupted  by 
their  office  to  promote  the  measures  of  administration,  though 
against  the  interests  and  rights  of  the  colonies,  they  must  not 
expect  to  be  continued." 

To  this  position  he  was  promptly  reappointed  by  the 
Continental  Congress  when  it  came  to  organize  its  posts, 

336 


JACK    OF   ALL   TRADES 

and  he  held  it  until  lie  sailed  for  France.  As  already 
noted,  Franklin,  however  well  he  conducted  the  busi- 
ness, was  over-inclined  to  distribute  the  offices  among 
his  own  family. 

Nothing  better  shows  Franklin's  versatility  and  ca- 
pacity than  the  services  he  rendered  in  the  three  great 
wars  of  his  time.  His  first  introduction  to  military 
affairs  was  due  to  a  condition  peculiar  to  Pennsylvania. 
During  the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  although 
French  and  Spanish  privateers  sailed  boldly  into  the 
Delaware,  capturing  ships  and  plundering  plantations, 
plead  as  the  governor  of  that  colony  would,  the  Quakers, 
who  controlled  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly,  principled 
against  war,  refused  to  raise  troops  or  fortify  the  river. 
Nor  would  the  rich  and  powerful  leaders  opposed  to 
that  sect  do  more,  their  reasoning,  according  to  Frank- 
lin, being:  "  Shall  we  lay  out  our  money  to  protect  the 
trade  of  Quakers?  Shall  we  fight  to  defend  Quakers? 
No;  let  the  trade  perish,  and  the  city  burn;  let  what 
will  happen,  we  shall  never  lift  a  finger  to  prevent 
it";  and  in  genuine  indignation  he  remarked:  "Till 
of  late  I  could  scarce  believe  the  story  of  him  who 
refused  to  pump  in  a  sinking  ship,  because  one  on 
board,  whom  he  hated,  would  be  saved  by  it  as  well  as 
himself."  In  this  condition  of  affairs,  Franklin  turned 
from  his  presses  and  made  an  appeal  to  those  who, 
like  himself,  were  "  the  middling  people,  the  farmers, 
shopkeepers  and  tradesmen  of  our  city  and  country," 
whose  interests  were  forgotten  "  through  the  dissen- 
sions of  our  leaders,  through  mistaken  principles  of 
religion,  joined  with  love  of  worldly  power  on  the  one 

337 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

hand ;  through  pride,  envy  and  implacable  resentment 
on  the  other." 

"  I  determined  to  try  what  might  be  done  by  a  voluntary 
association  of  the  people.  To  promote  this,  I  first  wrote  and 
published  a  pamphlet,  entitled  PLAIN  TRUTH,  in  which  I  stated 
our  defenceless  situation  in  strong  lights,  with  the  necessity  of 
union  and  discipline  for  our  defense,  and  promis'd  to  propose 
in  a  few  days  an  association,  to  be  generally  signed  for  that 
purpose.  The  pamphlet  had  a  sudden  and  surprising  effect. 
I  was  call'd  upon  for  the  instrument  of  association  and  .  .  . 
copies  being  dispersed  in  the  country,  the  subscribers  amounted 
at  length  to  upward  of  ten  thousand.  These  all  furnished 
themselves  as  soon  as  they  could  with  arms,  formed  themselves 
into  companies  and  regiments,  chose  their  own  officers,  and 
met  every  week  to  be  instructed  in  the  manual  exercise,  and 
other  parts  of  military  discipline.  The  women,  by  subscrip- 
tions among  themselves,  provided  silk  colors,  which  they  pre- 
sented to  the  companies,  painted  with  different  devices  and 
mottos,  which  I  supplied.  The  officers  of  the  companies  com- 
posing the  Philadelphia  regiment,  being  met,  chose  me  for 
their  colonel ;  but,  conceiving  myself  unfit,  I  declined  that 
station,  and  recommended  Mr.  Lawrence,  a  fine  person,  and 
man  of  influence,  who  was  accordingly  appointed.  I  then 
propos'd  a  lottery  to  defray  the  expense  of  building  a  battery 
below  the  town,  and  furnishing  it  with  cannon.  It  filled  ex- 
peditiously,  and  the  battery  was  soon  erected ;  .  .  .  the  asso- 
ciators  kept  a  nightly  guard  while  the  war  lasted,  and  among 
the  rest  I  regularly  took  my  turn  of  duty  there  as  a  common 
soldier." 

Franklin  found  that  "  My  activity  in  these  operations 
was  agreeable  to  the  governor  and  council ;  they  took 
me  into  confidence,  and  I  was  consulted  by  them  in 
every  measure'  wherein  their  concurrence  was  thought 
useful  to  the  association."  Calling  in  the  aid  of  religion, 
"  I  propos'd  to  them  the  proclaiming  a  fast,  to  promote 
reformation,  and  implore  the  blessing  of  Heaven  on  our 

338 


JACK    OF   ALL    TRADES 

undertaking."  Having  thus  appealed  to  the  religious 
part  of  the  community,  Franklin  as  well  devised  a 
means  of  influencing  the  people  socially.  "  It  is  pro- 
posed," he  told  a  correspondent,  "  to  breed  gunners  by 
forming  an  artillery  club,  to  go  down  weekly  to  the 
battery  and  exercise  the  great  guns.  The  best  engineers 

PLAN    of.tjfc  1'own  and  Harbour  of  LOUISBURG  H      '< 


MAP    OF  THE    SIEGE    OF   LOUISBURG. 
In  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

against  Cape  Breton  were  of  such  a  club,  tradesmen 
and  shopkeepers  of  Boston.  I  was  with  them  at  the 
Castle  at  their  exercise  in  1743." 

Having  made  himself  so  useful,  it  was  natural  that 
with  the  outbreak  of  the  French  and  Indian  War  his 
services  should  once  more  be  in  demand.  In  behalf  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Assembly  he  was  sent  to  confer  with 
General  Braddock,  and  finding  the  British  commander 
in  straits  for  teams  and  pack-horses,  he  undertook  the 

339 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

task  of  obtaining  them  for  him ;  with  such  success  that 
"  in  two  weeks  one  hundred  and  fifty  wagons,  with  two 
hundred  and  fifty-nine  carrying  horses,  were  on  their 
march  for  the  camp,"  to  accomplish  which  Franklin  ad- 
vanced out  of  his  own  pocket  upward  of  two  hundred 
pounds,  and,  furthermore,  gave  his  bond  for  their  return 
or  payment  according  to  valuation.  He  also  undertook 
to  aid  the  general  in  furnishing  him  with  provisions,. 
"  advancing  for  the  service,  of  my  own  money,  upwards 
of  one  thousand  pounds  sterling."  Learning  that  the 
subaltern  officers  were  having  difficulty  to  obtain  a  store 
of  provisions  for  their  march  through  the  wilderness,  he 
obtained  a  vote  from  the  Assembly  which  furnished 
each  one  of  them  a  gift  of  such  supplies  as  would  be  of 
the  most  value  to  them.  Far  more  valuable  than  all 
this,  however,  was  some  unheeded  advice  he  gave  Brad- 
dock,  which  is  well  worth  quotation : 

"  In  conversation  with  him  one  day,  he  was  giving  me  some 
account  of  his  intended  progress.  '  After  taking  Fort  Du- 
quesne,'  says  he,  'I  am  to  proceed  to  Niagara ;  and,  having 
taken  that,  to  Frontenac,  if  the  season  will  allow  time ;  and  I 
suppose  it  will,  for  Duquesne  can  hardly  detain  me  above 
three  or  four  days ;  and  then  I  see  nothing  that  can  obstruct 
my  march  to  Niagara.'  Having  before  revolv'd  in  my  mind 
the  long  line  his  army  must  make  in  their  march  by  a  very 
narrow  road,  to  be  cut  for  them  thro'  the  woods  and  bushes, 
and  also  what  I  had  read  of  a  former  defeat  of  fifteen  hundred 
French,  who  invaded  the  Iroquois  country,  I  had  conceiv'd 
some  doubts,  and  some  fears  for  the  event  of  the  campaign. 
But  I  ventur'd  only  to  say :  '  To  be  sure,  sir,  if  you  arrive 
well  before  Duquesne,  with  these  fine  troops,  so  well  provided 
with  artillery,  that  place,  not  completely  fortified,  and  as  we 
hear  with  no  very  strong  garrison,  can  probably  make  but  a 
short  resistance.  The  only  danger  I  apprehend  of  obstruction 

34° 


JACK   OF   ALL    TRADES 

to  your  march  is  from  the  ambuscades  of  Indians,  who,  by 
constant  practice,  are  dexterous  in  laying  and  executing  them  ; 
and  the  slender  line,  near  four  miles  long,  which  your  army 
must  make,  may  expose  it  to  be  attack'd  by  surprise  in  its 
flanks,  and  to  be  cut  like  a  thread  into  several  pieces,  which, 
from  their  distance,  cannot  come  up  in  time  to  support  each 
other.'  He  smil'd  at  my  ignorance,  and  reply'd :  'These 
savages  may,  indeed,  be  a  formidable  enemy  to  your  raw 
American  militia,  but  upon  the  king's  regular  and  disciplin'd 
troops,  sir,  it  is  impossible  they  should  make  any  impression.'  " 


Franklin  was  no  better  paid  for  his  aid  to  Braddock 
than  he  was  for  his  advice.  "  As  soon  as  the  loss  of 
the  wagons  and  horses  was  generally  known,  all  the 
owners  came  upon  me  for  the  valuation  which  I  had 
given  bond  to  pay" — claims  which  gave  him  infinite 
trouble,  but  which  eventually  he  cleared  himself  of.  A 
credit  due  on  another  account,  however,  was  never  paid. 
The  disaster  to  the  British  army  only  served  to  put 
further  labor  on  the  civilian's  shoulders.  The  Assembly 
appointed  him  one  of  the  commissioners  for  raising  and 
expending  money  for  the  defense  of  the  frontiers,  and 
he  set  about  this  business  with  his  usual  energy.  He 
drew  up  a  bill  for  establishing  and  disciplining  a  volun- 
tary militia,  and  in  its  behalf  wrote  a  dialogue  which 
bad  a  "  great  effect "  ;  he  planned  and  carried  through 
a  lottery  for  raising  a  further  sum  of  money;  and  this 
done,  "  the  governor  prevail'd  with  me  to  take  charge 
of  our  Northwestern  frontier  which  was  infested  by  the 
enemy,  and  provide  for  the  defence  of  the  inhabitants 
by  raising  troops  and  building  a  line  of  forts.  I  under- 
took this  military  business,  tho'  I  did  not  conceive 
myself  well  qualified  for  it."  A  month  on  the  frontier 

341 


THE    MANY-SIDED    FRANKLIN 

in  the  depth  of  winter  served  to  complete  the  three 
forts  needed  and  properly  to  garrison  and  provision 
them,  and  Franklin  returned  to  Philadelphia  to  find 
that  he  had  been  chosen  colonel  of  the  regiment  just 
completed  in  that  city,  which  he  now  accepted. 

"  The  first  time  I  reviewed  my  regiment  they  accompanied 
me  to  my  house,  and  would  salute  me  with  some  rounds  fired 
before  my  door,  which  shook  doxvn  and  broke  several  glasses 
of  my  electrical  apparatus.  And  my  new  honour  proved  not 
much  less  brittle ;  for  all  our  commissions  were  soon  after 
broken  by  a  repeal  of  the  law  in  England." 

In  the  Revolutionary  War,  despite  his  years,  he  took 
an  active  part.  How  he  was  sent  as  a  commissioner 
to  Canada  has  already  been  mentioned,  and  he  was  one 
of  the  committee  sent  to  camp  at  Cambridge  to  consult 
with  Washington  and  "  other  persons  "  touching  the 
most  effectual  method  of  continuing,  supporting,  and 
regulating  a  Continental  army.  For  the  defense  of 
Philadelphia  he  "  projected  "  a  chevaux-de-frise  for  the 
river  Delaware,  which  proved  of  the  utmost  value,  and 
well-nigh  prevented  the  British  from  holding  that  city 
in  1777.  As  another  element  of  protection  he  superin- 
tended the  construction  of  row-galleys.  A  great  scar- 
city of  powder  in  the  early  period  of  the  war  set  him 
to  considering  some  substitute  for  firearms ;  he  accord- 
ingly designed  a  pike,  and,  with  a  curious  lack  of  his 
usual  good  sense,  sought  by  arguments  to  convince 
himself  and  others  that  the  bow  and  arrow  was  still  a 
serviceable  weapon  and  missile  : 

"  i  st.  Because  a  man  may  shoot  as  truly  with  a  bow  as  with 
a  common  musket. 


JACK    OF   ALL    TRADES 

"  2dly.  He  can  discharge  four  arrows  in  the  time  of  charg- 
ing and  discharging  one  bullet. 

"  3dly.  His  object  is  not  taken  from  his  view  by  the  smoke 
of  his  own  side. 

"  4thly.  A  flight  of  arrows  seen  coming  upon  them,  terrifies 
arid  disturbs  the  enemies'  attention  to  their  business. 

"  sthly.  An  arrow  sticking  in  any  part  of  a  man  puts  him 
hors  du  combat  till  it  is  extracted. 

"  6thly.  Bows  and  arrows  are  more  easily  provided  every- 
where than  muskets  and  ammunition." 

Energetically  as  Franklin  worked  in  war-times,  he 
was  a  constant  advocate  of  peace.  "  In  my  opinion," 
lie  more  than  once  reiterated,  "  there  never  was  a  good 
war  or  a  bad  peace."  "  What  repeated  follies  are  these 
repeated  wars!"  he  exclaimed.  "You  do  not  want  to 
conquer  and  govern  one  another.  Why  then  should 
you  be  continually  employed  in  injuring  and  destroying 
one  another?"  "  You  are  near  neighbors,"  he  wrote 
of  Great  Britain  and  France,  "  and  each  have  very  re- 
spectable qualities.  Learn  to  be  quiet  and  to  respect 
each  other's  rights.  You  are  all  Christians.  One  is 
The  Most  Christian  King,  and  the  other  Defender  of 
the  Faith.  Manifest  the  propriety  of  these  titles  by 
your  future  conduct.  '  By  this,'  says  Christ,  '  shall  all 
men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  love  one 
another.'  '  He  penned  a  little  parable  which  reveals 
still  more  forcibly  the  unchristianity  of  war: 

"  In  what  light  we  are  viewed  by  superior  beings,  may  be 
gathered  from  a  piece  of  late  West  India  news,  which  possibly 
has  not  yet  reached  you.  A  young  angel  of  distinction  being 
sent  down  to  this  world  on  some  business,  for  the  first  time, 
had  an  old  courier-spirit  assigned  him  as  a  guide.  They 
arrived  over  the  seas  of  Martinico,  in  the  middle  of  the  long 
day  of  obstinate  fight  between  the  fleets  of  Rodney  and  De 

343 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Grasse.  When,  through  the  clouds  of  smoke,  he  saw  the  fire 
of  the  guns,  the  decks  covered  with  mangled  limbs  and  bodies 
dead  or  dying ;  the  ships  sinking,  burning,  or  blown  into  the 
air ;  and  the  quantity  of  pain,  misery,  and  destruction  the 
crews  yet  alive  were  thus  with  so  much  eagerness  dealing 
round  to  one  another,  he  turned  angrily  to  his  guide  and  said  : 
'  You  blundering  blockhead,  you  are  ignorant  of  your  business  ; 
you  undertook  to  conduct  me  to  the  earth,  and  you  have 
brought  me  into  hell!'  'No,  sir,'  says  the  guide,  'I  have 
made  no  mistake ;  this  is  really  the  earth,  and  these  are  men. 
Devils  never  treat  one  another  in  this  cruel  manner ;  they  have 
more  sense,  and  more  of  what  men  (vainly)  call  humanity'  " 

Recognizing  men  "  to  be  a  sort  of  beings  very  badly 
constructed,  as  they  are  more  easily  provoked  than 
reconciled,  more  disposed  to  do  mischief  to  each  other 
than  to  make  reparation,  much  more  easily  deceived 
than  undeceived,  and  having  more  pride  and  even 
pleasure  in  killing  than  in  begetting  one  another,"  and 
therefore  half  in  doubt  "  if  the  species  were  really  worth 
producing  or  preserving,"  he  none  the  less  did  his  best 
to  mitigate  the  horrors  of  war.  He  argued  in  favor  of 
the  abolition  of  privateering,  claiming  that  "  the  prac- 
tice of  robbing  merchants  on  the  high  seas  "  was  "  a 
remnant  of  ancient  piracy."  In  1783,  in  the  framing 
of  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great  Britain,  he  advocated 
that  the  misery  of  war  should  be  henceforth  limited  to 
the  actual  belligerents,  and  proposed  to  accomplish  this 
result  by  an  article  to  the  following  effect : 

"  If  war  should  hereafter  arise  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States,  which  God  forbid,  the  merchants  of  either 
country  then  residing  in  the  other  shall  be  allowed  to  remain 
nine  months  to  collect  their  debts  and  settle  their  affairs,  and 
may  depart  freely,  carrying  off  all  their  effects  without  moles- 
tation or  hindrance.  And  all  fishermen,  all  cultivators  of  the 

344 


JACK   OF   ALL   TRADES 

earth,  and  all  artisans  or  manufacturers  unarmed,  and  inhabit- 
ing unfortified  towns,  villages,  or  places,  who  labor  for  the 
common  subsistence  and  benefit  of  mankind,  and  peaceably 
follow  their  respective  employments,  shall  be  allowed  to 
continue  the  same,  and  shall  not  be  molested  by  the  armed 
force  of  the  enemy  in  whose  power  by  the  events  of  the  war 
they  may  happen  to  fall ;  but,  if  any  thing  is  necessary  to  be 
taken  from  them,  for  the  use  of  such  armed  force,  the  same 
shall  be  paid  for  at  a  reasonable  price.  And  all  merchants 
or  traders  with  their  unarmed  vessels,  employed  in  commerce, 
exchanging  the  products  of  different  places,  and  thereby  ren- 
dering the  necessaries,  conveniences,  and  comforts  of  human 
life  more  easy  to  obtain  and  more  general,  shall  be  allowed  to 
pass  freely,  unmolested.  And  neither  of  the  powers,  parties  to 
this  treaty,  shall  grant  or  issue  any  commission  to  any  private 
armed  vessels,  empowering  them  to  take  or  destroy  such 
trading  ships,  or  interrupt  such  commerce." 

The  proposition  ran  so  far  in  advance  of  public  opin- 
ion that  the  British  envoys  refused  even  to  consider  it ; 
but  later  it  was  made  part  of  the  treaty  the  American 
commissioners  negotiated  with  Prussia,  and  in  that  form 
received  better  appreciation  in  Great  Britain,  a  leading 
review  asserting  that  it  was  "  The  best  lesson  of 
humanity  which  a  philosophical  king  (Frederick  II), 
acting  in  concert  with  a  philosophical  patriot  (Franklin), 
could  possibly  give  to  the  princes  and  statesmen  of  the 
earth."  In  yet  another  way  Franklin  was  far  in  advance 
of  his  own  times,  for  in  maintaining  that  "  All  wars  are 
follies,  very  expensive,  and  very  mischievous  ones,"  he 
asked :  "  When  will  mankind  be  convinced  of  this,  and 
agree  to  settle  their  differences  by  arbitration?  " 

Franklin's  humanity  was  not  limited  to  the  abstract, 
and  his  gifts  in  charity  were  frequent.  But  knowing 
that  aid  of  this  sort  could  injure  as  well  as  benefit,  he 

345 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

adopted  a  system  designed  to  mitigate  the  evil  as  far 
as  possible,  without  lessening  the  good. 

"  As  to  the  kindness  you  mention,  I  wish  it  could  have  been 
of  more  service  to  you,"  he  told  a  friend.  "  But  if  it  had,  the 
only  thanks  I  should  desire  is,  that  you  would  always  be  equally 
ready  to  serve  any  other  person  that  may  need  your  assistance, 
and  so  let  good  offices  go  round,  for  mankind  are  all  of  a 
family." 

This  method  of  considering  his  assistance  a  loan,  and 
not  a  gift,  is  still  better  shown  in  a  letter  to  one  who 
had  asked  his  help : 

"  I  send  you  herewith  a  bill  for  ten  louis  d'ors.  I  do  not 
pretend  to  give  such  a  sum  ;  I  only  lend  it  to  you.  When  you 
shall  return  to  your  country  with  a  good  character,  you  cannot 
fail  of  getting  into  some  business,  that  will  in  time  enable  you 
to  pay  all  your  debts.  In  that  case,  when  you  meet  with  an- 
other honest  man  in  similar  distress,  you  must  pay  me  by 
lending  this  sum  to  him ;  enjoining  him  to  discharge  the  debt 
by  a  like  operation,  when  he  shall  be  able,  and  shall  meet  with 
such  another  opportunity.  I  hope  it  may  thus  go  through 
many  hands,  before  it  meets  with  a  knave  that  will  stop  its 
progress.  This  is  a  trick  of  mine  for  doing  a  deal  of  good 
with  a  little  money.  I  am  not  rich  enough  to  afford  nnich  in 
good  works,  and  so  am  obliged  to  be  cunning  and  make  the 
most  of  a  little" 

It  is  interesting  to  note  how  far  he  prospered  in  a 
moneyed  sense.  When  he  first  landed  in  Philadelphia, 
"  my  whole  stock  of  cash  consisted  in  a  Dutch  dollar, 
and  about  a  shilling  in  copper."  Very  soon  he  was  a 
peculator  to  a  friend  for  a  debt  of  twenty  pounds  he  had 
been  empowered  to  collect,  and  a  little  later  he  ran  in 
debt  still  more  to  establish  himself  as  a  printer.  -But 
once  well  started,  he  quickly  paid  all  these  claims,  and 
began  to  lay  up  money.  He  was  able  presently  to  buy 


JACK    OF   ALL   TRADES 

his  printing-office,  and  then  a  house  to  live  in.  How 
he  had  his  share  in  a  relative's  estate  divided  among  his 
less  well-to-do  brothers  and  sisters  has  been  shown, 
and  he  left  to  them  also  his  share  in  his  father's  estate, 
refusing  to  claim  it.  When,  in  1784,  he  retired  from 
printing,  it  was  agreed  that  his  partner  was  to  pay 
him  a  thousand  pounds,  currency,  a  year,  and  he  had 
moneys  loaned  on  bond  and  mortgage.  In  I  767,  writ- 
ing to  his  wife,  he  speaks  of  his  financial  condition  : 

"  Since  my  partnership  with  Mr.  Hall  is  expired,  a  great 
source  of  our  income  is  cut  off,  and  if  1  should  lose  the  post- 
office,  which  among  the  many  changes  here  is  far  from  being 
unlikely,  we  should  be  reduced  to  our  rents  and  interests  of 
money  for  a  subsistence,  which  will  by  no  means  afford  the 
chargeable  housekeeping  we  have  been  used  to.  ...  In  short, 
with  frugality  and  prudent  care  we  may  subsist  decently  on 
what  we  leave,  and  leave  it  entire  to  our  children." 

In  1772,  during  a  panic  in  London,  he  lent  a  friend 
in  whom  he  had  confidence  five  thousand  pounds,  but 
was  forced  to  borrow  the  larger  portion  from  a  bank. 
For  several  years  he  was  hopeful  of  securing,  with  a 
number  of  others,  a  patent  for  a  great  tract  of  land  on 
the  Ohio  River,  a  project  which  only  failed  by  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  Revolution,  and  which  would  have  made 
him  a  rich  man,  had  it  been  completed.  He  succeeded 
better  in  a  land  grant  in  Nova  Scotia,  ultimately  worth 
some  three  thousand  pounds.  "  Before  his  departure  " 
for  France  in  1776,  "he  put  all  the  money  he  could 
raise,  between  three  and  four  thousand  pounds,"  into 
the  hands  of  Congress,  "  which  demonstrating  his  con- 
fidence encouraged  others  to  lend  their  money  in  sup- 
port of  the  cause."  The  State  of  Georgia,  in  recognition 

347 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

of  his  services,  voted  him  three  thousand  acres  of  land, 
and  he  also  became  the  owner  by  gift  or  purchase  of 
some  lands  on  the  Ohio.  When  he  died,  his-estate  con- 
sisted of  ten  houses  in  Philadelphia,  and  almost  as  many 
vacant  lots,  a  house  in  Boston,  a  pasture  near  Phila- 
delphia and  a  large  farm  near  Burlington  in  New 
Jersey,  twelve  shares  of  stock  of  the  Bank  of  North 
America,  and  personal  bonds  exceeding  eighteen  thou- 
sand pounds,  his  whole  estate  being  valued  at  between 
two  hundred  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars. 
Franklin  disapproved  of  public  officials  having  salaries, 
and  in  accepting  the  office  of  president  (or  governor)  of 
Pennsylvania,  he  states  that  "  it  was  my  intention  .  .  . 
to  devote  the  appointed  salary  to  some  public  uses. 
Accordingly,  I  had  already,  before  I  made  my  will 
.  .  .  given  large  sums  of  it  to  colleges,  schools,  build- 
ing of  churches,  etc.,"  and  by  that  instrument,  wishing 
"  To  be  useful  even  after  my  death  if  possible  ...  to 
this  end,  I  devote  two  thousand  pounds  sterling,  of 
which  I  give  one  thousand  thereof  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  town  of  Boston  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  other 
thousand  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia 
in  trust,"  these  sums  to  be  lent  at  interest  "  to  such 
young  married  artificers,  under  the  age  of  twenty -five 
years,  as  have  served  an  apprenticeship  in  the  said 
town,  and  faithfully  fulfilled  the  duties  required  in  their 
indentures,  so  as  to  obtain  a  good  moral  character  from 
at  least  two  respectable  citizens  who  are  willing  to 
become  their  sureties  .  .  .  to  assist  them  in  setting  up 
in  business."  As  the  funds  grew,  the  surplus  was  to 
be  expended  "  in  public  works,  which  may  be  judged 

348 


JACK    OF   ALL    TRADES 

of  most  general  utility  to  the  inhabitants,  such  as  forti- 
fications, bridges,  aqueducts,  public  buildings,  baths, 
pavements,  or  whatever  may  make  living  in  the  town 
more  convenient  to  its  people,  and  render  it  more  agree- 
able to  strangers  resorting  thither  for  health  or  a  tem- 
porary residence."  Franklin  conceived  of  these  funds 
eventually  reaching  millions ;  but  though  both  cities 
accepted  the  gifts,  between  the  strictness  of  the  terms 
imposed  and  poor  financial  management,  the  trusts 
have  fulfilled  only  a  small  part  of  their  testator's  wishes, 
and  have  proved  anew  that  the  philanthropy  of  the 
living  is  better  than  the  philanthropy  of  the  dead. 


fried  by  HALL  and  8EL-« 
LERS.     1776. 

^®i^<^--^--(^<^-(?»(8^--«^ffi»<ftp  i 

— -*i 

HACK   OF  CONTINENTAL  CURRENCY. 
Showing  Franklin's  use  of  the  veining  of  leaves  to  make  counterfeiting  difficult. 


349 


ENTRANCE  TO  LITTLE   BRITAIN,    LONDON,    WHERE 

FRANKLIN   LIVED   IN    1726. 
From  a  water-color  sketch  in  the  British  Museum. 


IX 


THE    SCIENTIST 

IN  1752,  when  Franklin's  letters  on  electricity  were 
translated  into  French  and  printed  at  Paris,  the 
preceptor  of  the  royal  family,  the  Abbe  Nollet,  "  who 
had  form'd  and  publish'd  a  theory  of  electricity,"  would 
not  "  at  first  believe  that  such  a  work  came  from 
America,  and  said  it  must  have  been  fabricated  by  his 
enemies  at  Paris,  to  decry  his  system."  Nor  was  it  for 
some  time  that  he  could  be  convinced  "  that  there  really 
existed  such  a  man  as  Franklin  at  Philadelphia."  Such 

35° 


THE   SCIENTIST 

a  fact  serves  strikingly  to  show  his  position  in  American 
philosophy. 

It  is  difficult  to  discover  what  first  turned  Franklin's 
attention  to  questions  of  science,  and  it  seems  most 
likely  that  it  was  merely  one  expression  of  his  appetite 
for  all  learning.  As  a  boy  in  Boston,  so  his  autobiog- 
raphy relates,  his  brother's  paper  was  aided  by  "  some 
ingenious  men  among  his  friends,  who  amus'd  them- 
selves by  writing  little  pieces " ;  and  from  another 
source  it  is  known  that  among  them  was  Dr.  William 
Douglas,  who  ranked  high  in  the  colonies  for  his  learn- 
ing ;  but  the  fact  that  he  and  his  fellow- writers  were 
desperately  opposed  to  inoculation  reveals  the  limits  of 
their  intellects,  and  makes  it  improbable  that  the  so- 
called  "  Hell-fire  Club  "  exerted  much  of  an  influence 
upon  the  apprentice. 

During  Franklin's  brief  sojourn  in  London  in  1725- 
26  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  several  men  of  scientific 
attainments,  among  others  of  Dr.  Mandeville,  author  of 
"  The  Fable  of  the  Bees,"  and  Dr.  Pemberton,  the 
secretary  of  the  Royal  Society.  An  asbestos  purse  he 
brought  with  him  from  America,  and  which  he  offered 
for  sale,  secured  him  the  acquaintance  of  Sir  Hans 
Sloane,  who,  Franklin  relates,  "  came  to  see  me,  and 
invited  me  to  his  house  in  Bloomsbury  Square,  where 
he  show'd  me  all  his  curiosities."  Pemberton  promised 
"  to  give  me  an  opportunity,  some  time  or  other,  of 
seeing  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  of  which  I  was  extreamly 
desirous,  but  this  never  happened."  Thus  it  is  evident 
that  even  at  twenty  Franklin  had  strong  predilections 
for  men  and  questions  of  science. 

351 


THE    MANY-SIDED    FRANKLIN 

His  life  after  his  return  to  Philadelphia  goes  as  well 
to  prove  his  interest.  Here  he  "  form'd  most  of  my 
ingenious  acquaintance  into  a  club  of  mutual  improve- 
ment," which  was  called  the  Junto,  each  member  of 


J.    A.    XOLLET. 

which,  in  turn,  was  required  to  produce  "  one  or  more 
queries  on  any  point  of  Morals,  Politics,  or  Natural 
Philosophy,  to  be  discuss'd  by  the  company."  A  few 
of  the  questions  so  propounded  and  debated  are  known, 
and  among  them  are  to  be  found  such  as :  "  How  may 

352 


THE    SCIENTIST 

the  phenomena  of  vapors  be  explained?"  "What  is 
the  reason  that  the  tides  rise  higher  in  the  Bay  of 
Fundy  than  the  Bay  of  Delaware?"  and  "Why  does 
the  flame  of  a  candle  tend  upwards  in  a  spire?"  It  is 
not  probable  that  the  discussions  were  of  much  impor- 
tance, though  Franklin  himself  asserted  that  the  club 
"  was  the  best  school  of  philosophy,  morality  and  pol- 
itics that  then  existed  in  the  province;  for  our  queries, 
which  were  read  the  week  preceding  their  discussion, 
put  us  upon  reading  with  attention  upon  the  several 
subjects,  that  we  might  speak  more  to  the  purpose." 

The  early  years  of  his  printing  were  too  busy  ones  to 
let  him  devote  much  time  to  such  subjects,  but  his 
newspaper  supplies  an  occasional  evidence  that  he  was 
not  wholly  neglecting  them.  In  the  "  Gazette,"  as 
early  as  I  732,  he  wrote  "  On  making  Rivers  navigable  "  ; 
a  little  later  "On  late  Discoveries";  and  in  1737  he 
compiled  for  his  columns  an  article  on  the  "  Causes  of 
Earthquakes,"  "  the  late  earthquakes  felt  here,  and 
probably  in  all  the  neighboring  provinces,  having  made 
many  people  desirous  to  know  what  may  be  the  natural 
cause  of  such  violent  concussions."  Though  his  trade 
prevented  him  from  all  research  himself,  his  real  interest 
at  this  time  is  well  proved  by  his  drawing  up  a  sub- 
scription paper  to  raise  an  annual  fund  to  enable  that 
"  accurate  Observator,"  John  Bartram,  who  "  has  had 
a  Propensity  to  Botanicks  from  his  Infancy,  and  to  the 
Productions  of  Nature  in  general,"  to  pursue  his 
"  Searches  after  Vegetables  and  Fossils,"  on  condition 
that  "  he  will  describe  and  yearly  communicate  to  the 
Subscribers"  the  results. 

353 


A.    L.    LAVOISIER. 
From  a  lithograph. 


THE    SCIENTIST 

Out  of  this  subscription  grew  a  far  more  important 
project.  In  I  744  Franklin  suggested  the  formation  of 
a  society  of  those  interested  in  science,  and  drew  up  a 
"  proposal,"  or  plan,  for  such  an  organization,  to  which 
he  gave  the  name  of  "  The  American  Philosophical 
Society,"  offering  himself  to  serve  as  secretary.  His 
wish  was  attained  so  far  as  the  formation,  but  for  many 
years  little  was  accomplished,  and  Franklin  complained 
that  "  the  members  of  our  Society  here  are  very  idle 
gentlemen,"  who  "  will  take  no  pains."  In  connection 
with  it,  the  printer  planned  "  to  publish  an  American 
Philosophical  Miscellany,  monthly  or  quarterly,"  but 
this  was  never  achieved.  Long  after,  the  society  grew 
into  importance,  and,  with  Franklin  as  its  president, 
came  to  take  rank  among  the  learned  bodies  of  Europe. 

Prior  to  the  issue  of  the  proposal  Franklin  had 
proved  his  right  to  be  deemed  more  than  a  student  of 
science,  by  his  invention  of  the  famous  Franklin  stove. 
One  of  his  queries  for  the  Junto  was  entitled,  "  How 
may  smoky  chimneys  be  best  cured?"  suggesting  that 
very  early  in  his  studies  his  attention  was  turning  to  a 
kindred  problem.  "  It  is  strange,  methinks,"  Franklin 
remarked,  "  that  though  chimneys  have  been  for  so 
long  in  use,  the  construction  should  be  so  little  under- 
stood, till  lately,  that  no  workman  pretended  to  make 
one  which  should  always  carry  off  all  smoke."  Nor 
was  this  the  only  difficulty  of  the  old  fireplace  the 
investigator  catalogued.  It  might  have  the  "  conve- 
niency  of  two  warm  seats,  one  in  each  corner ;  but  they 
are  sometimes  too  hot  to  abide  in,  ...  and  the  cold 
air  so  nips  the  backs  and  heels  of  those  that  sit  before 

355 


SIR    HANS    SLOAXE. 
In  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  London. 


THE    SCIENTIST 

the  fire  that  they  have  no  comfort  till  either  screens  or 
settles  are  provided,"  while  "a  moderate  quantity  of 
wood  on  the  fire,  in  so  large  a  hearth,  seems  but  little ; 
and,  in  so  strong  and  cold  a  draft,  warms  but  little ;  so 
that  people  are  continually  laying  on  more.  In  short, 
it  is  next  to  impossible  to  warm  a  room  with  such  a 
fireplace."  As  an  alternative,  a  Dutch  or  German 
stove  could  be  used ;  but  these  had  offsetting  defects, 
in  that  they  supplied  little  or  no  fresh  air  to  the  room, 
and  "  there  is  no  sight  of  the  fire,  which  in  itself  is  a 
pleasant  thing."  To  combine  the  advantages  and  elimi- 
nate the  defects  of  the  two  systems  was  the  task  he  set 
himself,  and  in  1742  he  evolved  the  "Pennsylvania 
Fire-Place,"  in  which  the  heat  from  an  open  fire,  after 
ascending,  was  made  to  descend  before  escaping 
through  the  chimney,  and  thus  was  made  to  heat 
currents  of  fresh  air  as  they  entered  the  room.  It  is 
impossible  to-day  to  realize  what  this  improvement 
meant.  "  I  suppose  our  ancestors  never  thought,"  said 
Franklin,  "  of  warming  rooms  to  sit  in ;  all  they  pur- 
posed was,  to  have  a  place  to  make  a  fire  in,  by  which 
they  might  warm  themselves  when  cold."  But  with 
this  stove  "  your  whole  room  is  equally  warm,  so  that 
people  need  not  crowd  so  close  round  the  fire,  but  may 
sit  near  the  window,  and  have  the  benefit  of  the  light 
for  reading,  writing,  needlework,  &c.  They  may  sit 
with  comfort  in  any  part  of  the  room,  which  is  a  very 
considerable  advantage  in  a  large  family."  It  was  ac- 
complished, too,  with  a  great  saving  in  fuel.  "  I  sup- 
pose," the  inventor  claimed,  "  taking  a  number  of 
families  together,  that  two  thirds,  or  half  the  wood,  at 

357 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

least,  is  saved,"  He  himself  found  that  "  My  common 
room,  I  know,  is  made  twice  as  warm  as  it  used  to  be, 
with  a  quarter  of  the  wood  I  formerly  consumed  there." 
This  saving,  by  his  own  choice,  was  all  the  profit  that 
accrued  to  him.  In  his  autobiography  he  says : 

"  I  made  a  present  of  the  model  to  Mr.  Robert  Grace,  one 
of  my  early  friends,  who,  having  an  iron-furnace,  found  the 
casting  of  the  plates  for  these  stoves  a  profitable  thing,  as 
they  were  growing  in  demand.  To  promote  that  demand,  I 
wrote  and  published  a  pamphlet,  entitled  '  An  Account  of  the 
new-invented  Pennsylvania  Fireplaces  ;  wherein  their  Construc- 
tion and  Manner  of  Operation  is  particularly  explained ;  their 
Advantages  above  every  other  Method  of  warming  Rooms  de- 
monstrated;  and  all  Objections  that  have  been  raised  against  the 
Use  of  them  answered  and  obviated]  etc.  This  pamphlet  had 
a  good  effect.  Gov'r  Thomas  was  so  pleas'd  with  the  con- 
struction of  this  stove,  as  described  in  it,  that  he  offered  to 
give  me  a  patent  for  the  sole  vending  of  them  for  a  term  of 
years ;  but  I  declin'd  it  from  a  principle  which  has  ever 
weighed  with  me  on  such  occasions,  viz.,  That,  as  we  enjoy 
great  advantages  from  the  inventions  of  others,  we  should  be 
glad  of  an  opportunity  to  serve  others  by  any  invention  of  ours  ; 
and  this  we  should  do  freely  and  generously. 

"An  ironmonger  in  London  however,  assuming  a  good 
deal  of  my  pamphlet,  and  working  it  up  into  his  own,  and 
making  some  small  changes  in  the  machine,  which  rather  hurt 
its  operation,  got  a  patent  for  it  there,  and  made,  as  I  was 
told,  a  little  fortune  by  it.  And  this  is  not  the  only  instance 
of  patents  taken  out  for  my  inventions  by  others,  tho'  not 
always  with  the  same  success,  which  I  never  contested,  as 
having  no  desire  of  profiting  by  patents  myself,  and  hating 
disputes.  The  use  of  these  fireplaces  in  very  many  houses, 
both  of  this  and  the  neighboring  colonies,  has  been,  and  is,  a 
great  saving  of  wood  to  the  inhabitants," 

Many  years  later  Franklin  invented  a  second  stove, 
which  he  believed  would  be  of  equal  service,  constructed 

358 


90 
> 
X 

^ 

a*   £ 

§•: 

rl 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

on  the  principle  of  the  siphon,  so  that  the  fire  was  made 
to  draw  downward,  thus  consuming  its  own  smoke,  and 
which  could  burn  either  wood  or  coal.  His  first  model, 
in  which  the  coals  were  held  in  an  ornamental  urn,  was 
completed  in  1771,  and  was  used  by  him  successfully 
for  several  years ;  but  the  stove  never  obtained  any 
general  vogue.  It,  however,  supplied  the  basis  of  a 
clever  epigram,  said  to  have  been  written  by  a  Miss 
Norris,  which  obtained  great  currency  at  the  time : 

"  Like  Newton  sublimely  he  soared 

To  a  summit  before  unattained, 
New  regions  of  science  explored, 
And  the  palm  of  philosophy  gained. 

"  Oh,  had  he  been  wise  to  pursue 

The  track  for  his  talent  designed, 
What  tribute  of  praise  had  been  due 
To  the  teacher  and  friend  of  mankind. 

"  But  to  covet  political  fame 

Was  in  him  a  degrading  ambition  ; 
A  spark  that  from  Lucifer  came 
And  kindled  the  flame  of  sedition. 

"  Let  candor  then  write  on  his  urn, 
Here  lies  the  renowned  inventor, 
Whose  flame  to  the  skies  sought  to  burn, 
But  inverted  descends  to  the  centre." 


Although  it  was  not  announced  until  some  years 
later,  Franklin  in  1 743  made  a  discovery  which,  if  not 
as  utilitarian  as  his  stove,  bespoke  a  higher  order  fo 
scientific  research.  In  that  year  he  was  prevented  from 
observing  an  eclipse  by  a  storm  which  obscured  the 

360 


THE    SCIENTIST 

moon.  Much  to  his  surprise,  he  found  that  though 
the  storm  blew  from  the  northeast,  yet  it  had  not 
reached  Boston  till  an  hour  after  the  eclipse  was  over. 
This  set  him  to  studying  the  movements  of  the  winds, 
and  to  the  proving  of  the  apparent  contradiction  that 
storms  travel  in  an  opposite  direction  from  that  of  the 
wind.  Impossible  as  this  might  seem  to  reconcile, 
Franklin  formed  a  "conjecture"  which  is  scarcely  to 
be  equaled  in  scientific  writing  for  its  clearness,  convin- 
cingness, and  happy  use  of  comparison. 

"  Suppose,"  he  assumed,  "  a  great  tract  of  country,  land  and 
sea,  to  wit,  Florida  and  the  Bay  of  Mexico,  to  have  clear 
weather  for  several  days,  and  to  be  heated  by  the  sun,  and  its 
air  thereby  exceedingly  rarefied.  Suppose  the  country  north- 
eastward, as  Pennsylvania,  New  England,  Nova  Scotia,  and 
Newfoundland,  to  be  at  the  same  time  covered  with  clouds, 
and  its  air  chilled  and  condensed.  The  rarefied  air  being 
lighter  must  rise,  and  the  denser  air  next  to  it  will  press  into 
its  place ;  that  will  be  followed  by  the  next  denser  air,  that  by 
the  next,  and  so  on.  Thus,  when  I  have  a  fire  in  my  chim- 
ney, there  is  a  current  of  air  constantly  flowing  from  the  door 
to  the  chimney ;  but  the  beginning  of  the  motion  was  at  the 
chimney,  where  the  air  being  rarefied  by  the  fire  rising,  its 
place  was  supplied  by  the  cooler  air  that  was  next  to  it,  and 
the  place  of  that  by  the  next,  and  so  on  to  the  door.  So  the 
water  in  a  long  sluice  or  mill-race,  being  stopped  by  a  gate,  is 
at  rest  like  the  air  in  a  calm ;  but  as  soon  as  you  open  the 
gate  at  one  end  to  let  it  out,  the  water  next  the  gate  begins 
first  to  move,  that  which  is  next  to  it  follows ;  and  so,  though 
the  water  proceeds  forward  to  the  gate,  the  motion  which 
began  there  runs  backwards,  if  one  may  so  speak,  to  the  upper 
end  of  the  race,  where  the  water  is  last  in  motion." 

It  was  in  1746  that  Franklin's  attention  was  first 
drawn  to  electricity.  From  a  long  period  of  neglect 

361 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

the  subject  had  suddenly  secured  renewed  attention  by 
Gray's  experiments  as  to  the  conductivity  of  various 
substances,  and  Dufay's  discovery  of  what  he  deemed 
two  kinds  of  electricity.  Close  upon  these  develop- 
ments came  the  perfecting  of  the  Leyden  jar,  and  with 
it  the  science  sprang  into  instant  popularity.  Traveling 
electricians  went  about  all  over  Europe,  exhibiting  the 
phenomena  and  selling  shocks  to  a  half-frightened  and 
deeply  interested  public. 

It  was  one  of  these  itinerants  who  set  the  master 
printer  to  studying  the  mysterious  fluid.  "  Being  at 
Boston,  I  met  there  with  a  Dr.  Spence,  who  was  lately 
arrived  from  Scotland,  and  show'd  me  some  electric 
experiments.  They  were  imperfectly  perform'd,  as  he 
was  not  very  expert ;  but,  being  on  a  subject  quite  new 
to  me,  they  equally  surpris'd  and  pleased  me.  Soon 
after  my  return  to  Philadelphia,  our  library  company 
receiv'd  from  Mr.  P.  Collinson,  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society  of  London,  a  present  of  a  glass  tube,  with  some 
account  of  the  use  of  it  in  making  such  experiments.  I 
eagerly  seized  the  opportunity  of  repeating  what  I  had 
seen  in  Boston ;  and,  by  much  practice,  acquir'd  great 
readiness  in  performing  those,  also,  which  we  had  an 
account  of  from  England,  adding  a  number  of  new  ones. 
I  say  much  practice,  for  my  house  was  continually  full, 
for  some  time,  with  people  who  came  to  see  these  new 
wonders." 

There  was  a  quality  in  Franklin's  mind  which  made 
it  impossible  for  him  not  to  attempt  improvement  in 
whatever  he  took  in  hand,  and  within  a  year  he  had 
ascertained  a  fact  which  went  far  to  revolutionize  the 

362 


THE    SCIENTIST 

whole  science.  Discarding  the  idea  that  electricity  was 
a  substance  created  by  friction,  he  maintained  that  it 
was  "  really  an  element  diffused  among-,  and  attracted 
by  other  matter,  particularly  by  water  and  metals."  He 


PETER    COLLINSON. 
From  a  print. 

proved  that  the  Leyden  jar,  no  matter  how  highly 
electrified,  contained  no  more  electricity  than  it  did 
before  it  was  charged,  what  was  added  to  one  surface 
being  taken  from  the  other.  This  demonstrated,  he 
brushed  aside  Dufay's  theory  of  vitreous  and  resinous 
electricity,  and  gave  to  the  world  in  its  stead  that  of  a 
positive  and  negative,  or,  as  he  sometimes  phrased  it, 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

of  a  plus  and  minus  state.  Not  merely  did  this  account 
for  and  explain  the  great  mass  of  known  phenomena, 
but  the  beginning  of  modern  electricity  may  be  said  to 
date  from  the  discovery,  for  by  it  the  mysterious  fluid, 
from  being  merely  a  curiosity,  became,  potentially,  a 
new  force  or  power. 

Other  investigators  had  suggested  the  probable 
identity  of  electricity  and  lightning,  and  to  prove  this 
was  Franklin's  next  undertaking.  He  first  drew  up  a 
paper  bringing  together  all  the  evidence  and  arguments 
in  favor  of  the  belief;  but  in  his  scientific  work  he  was 
never  satisfied  with  a  mere  theory,  and  so  he  undertook 
to  demonstrate  it.  Probably  his  method  was  suggested 
to  him  by  an  account  he  received  of  a  certain  ship's 
experience  with  St.  Elmo's  fire  and  a  stroke  of  light- 
ning during  a  storm.  These  masthead  globes  of  fire, 
Franklin  argued,  were  but  "  the  electrical  fire  .  .  . 
then  drawing  off,  as  by  points,  from  the  cloud  .  .  .  and 
had  there  been  a  good  wire  communication  from  the 
spintle  heads  to  the  sea,  that  could  have  conducted 
more  freely  than  tarred  ropes,  or  masts  of  turpentine 
wood,  I  imagine  there  would  either  have  been  no  stroke, 
or,  if  a  stroke,  the  wire  would  have  conducted  it  all  into 
the  sea  without  damage  to  the  ship." 

"  To  determine  the  question,  whether  the  clouds  that  con- 
tain lightning  are  electrified  or  not,  I  would  propose  an  ex- 
periment to  be  tried  where  it  may  be  done  conveniently.  On 
the  top  of  some  high  tower  or  steeple,  place  a  kind  of  sentry- 
box,  .  .  .  big  enough  to  contain  a  man  and  an  electrical 
stand.  From  the  middle  of  the  stand  let  an  iron  rod  rise  and 
pass  bending  out  of  the  door,  and  then  upright  twenty  or  thirty 
feet,  pointed  very  sharp  at  the  end.  If  the  electrical  stand  be 

364 


e 


, 


FACSIMILE   OF    LET'l'KR    FROM   JOSEPH-IGNACK   GUILLOTIN   TO   FRANKLIN. 


FACSIMILE  OF  LETTER   FROM    JOSEPH-1GNACE  GUILLOTIX   TO   FRANKLIN. 


THE   SCIENTIST 

kept  clean  and  dry,  a  man  standing  on  it,  when  such  clouds 
are  passing  low,  might  be  electrified  and  afford  sparks,  the 
rod  drawing  fire  to  him  from  a  cloud.  If  any  danger  to  the 
man  should  be  apprehended  (though  I  think  there  would  be 
none),  let  him  stand  on  the  floor  of  his  box,  and  now  and 
then  bring  near  to  the  rod  the  loop  of  a  wire  that  has  one  end 
fastened  to  the  leads,  he  holding  it  by  a  wax  handle ;  so  that 
sparks,  if  the  rod  is  electrified,  will  strike  from  the  rod  to  the 
wire,  and  not  affect  him." 

Franklin  himself  was  not  able  to  carry  out  this  ex- 
periment, because  Philadelphia  was  without  a  suitable 
eminence.  His  suggestion  was  seized  upon,  however, 
by  the  French  savants,  BufTon,  Dalibard,  and  De  Lor. 
On  a  hill  at  Marly  a  rod  was  erected,  and  on  May  10, 
1752,  "a  thunder-cloud  having  passed  over  the  place 
where  the  bar  stood,  those  who  were  appointed  to  ob- 
serve it,  drew  near  and  attracted  from  it  sparks  of  fire, 
perceiving  the  same  kind  of  commotions  as  in  the  com- 
mon electrical  experiments."  Ere  Franklin  learned  of 
this  successful  proving  of  his  theory  with  his  method  by 
the  French  scientists,  he  could  write  them  that  "  the 
same  experiment  has  succeeded  in  Philadelphia,  though 
made  in  a  different  and  more  easy  manner."  Then  in 
a  purely  abstract  form  he  described  the  mode  which  so 
seized  the  popular  fancy : 

"  Make  a  small  cross  of  two  light  strips  of  cedar,  the  arm 
so  long  as  to  reach  to  the  four  corners  of  a  large  thin  silk 
handkerchief  when  extended ;  tie  the  corners  of  the  handker- 
chief to  the  extremities  of  the  cross,  so  you  have  the  body  of 
a  kite  ;  which,  being  properly  accommodated  with  a  tail,  loop, 
and  string,  will  rise  in  the  air,  like  those  made  of  paper;  but 
this  being  of  silk  is  fitter  to  bear  the  wet  and  wind  of  a 
thunder-gust  without  tearing.  To  the  top  of  the  upright 

367 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

stick  of  the  cross  is  to  be  fixed  a  very  sharp-pointed  wire,  ris- 
ing a  foot  or  more  above  the  wood.  To  the  end  of  the  twine, 
next  the  hand,  is  to  be  tied  a  silk  ribbon,  and  where  the  silk 
and  twine  join,  a  key  may  be  fastened.  This  kite  is  to  be 
raised  when  a  thunder-gust  appears  to  be  coming  on,  and  the 
person  who  holds  the  string  must  stand  within  a  door  or 
window,  or  under  some  cover,  so  that  the  silk  ribbon  may 
not  be  wet ;  and  care  must  be  taken  that  the  twine  does  not 
touch  the  frame  of  the  door  or  window.  As  soon  as  any  of 
the  thunder-clouds  come  over  the  kite,  the  pointed  wire  will 
draw  the  electric  fire  from  them,  and  the  kite,  with  all  the 
twine,  will  be  electrified,  and  the  loose  filaments  of  the  twine 
will  stand  out  every  way,  and  be  attracted  by  an  approaching 
finger.  And  when  the  rain  has  wetted  the  kite  and  twine,  so 
that  it  can  conduct  the  electric  fire  freely,  you  will  find  it 
stream  out  plentifully  from  the  key  on  the  approach  of  your 
knuckle.  At  this  key  the  phial  may  be  charged ;  and  from 
electric  fire  thus  obtained,  spirits  may  be  kindled,  and  all  the 
other  electric  experiments  be  performed,  which  are  usually 
done  by  the  help  of  a  rubbed  glass  globe  or  tube,  and  there- 
by the  sameness  of  the  electric  matter  with  that  of  lightning 
completely  demonstrated." 

Even  before  the  identity  of  electricity  and  lightning 
had  been  thus  established,  Franklin  outlined  his  proposal 
for  the  protection  of  buildings.  "  If  these  things  are  so," 
he  argued  as  early  as  1749,  "  may  not  the  knowledge  of 
this  power  of  points  be  of  use  to  mankind,  in  preserving 
houses,  churches,  ships,  &c  from  the  stroke  of  lightning, 
by  directing  us  to  fix,  on  the  highest  parts  of  those 
edifices,  upright  rods  of  iron  made  sharp  as  a  needle, 
and  gilt  to  prevent  rusting,  and  from  the  foot  of  those 
rods  a  wire  down  the  outside  of  the  building  into,  the 
ground,  or  down  round  one  of  the  shrouds  of  a  ship,  and 
down  her  side  till  it  reaches  the  water?  Would  not  these 
pointed  rods  probably  draw  the  electrical  fire  silently 

368 


THE   SCIENTIST 

out  of  a  cloud  before  it  came  nigh  enough  to  strike, 
and    thereby    secure    us    from    that    most    sudden    and 


JOSEPH    PRIESTLEY. 
From  a  pastel  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  London. 


terrible  mischief?"  It  was  preeminently  Franklinian 
that  he  should  turn  his  discovery  to  a  useful  purpose 
before  the  truth  of  it  was  accepted,  far  less  confirmed. 

369 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

And   few   inventors   have   been   so   directly  rewarded, 
for  he  relates  that : 

"  My  own  house  was  one  day  attacked  by  lightning,  which 
occasioned  the  neighbors  to  run  in  to  give  assistance,  in  case 
of  its  being  on  fire.  But  no  damage  was  done,  and  my  family 
was  only  found  a  good  deal  frightened  with  the  violence  of 
the  explosion.  Last  year,  my  house  being  enlarged,  the  con- 
ductor was  obliged  to  be  taken  down.  I  found,  upon  exam- 
ination, that  the  pointed  termination  of  copper,  which  was 
originally  nine  inches  long,  and  about  one  third  of  an  inch  in 
diameter  in  its  thickest  part,  had  been  almost  entirely  melted  ; 
and  that  its  connection  with  the  rod  of  iron  below  was  very 
slight.  Thus,  in  the  course  of  time,  this  invention  has  proved 
of  use  to  the  author  of  it,  and  has  added  this  personal  ad- 
vantage to  the  pleasure  he  before  received  from  having  been 
useful  to  others." 

These  two  most  important  discoveries  of  Franklin,  as 
well  as  his  minor  experiments,  were  first  made  known 
to  Europe  by  letters  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Collinson. 

"  I  thought  it  right,"  Franklin  said  in  his  autobiography  r 
''  he  should  be  inform'd  of  our  success  in  using  it  [a  glass 
tube],  and  wrote  him  several  letters  containing  accounts  of 
our  experiments.  He  got  them  read  in  the  Royal  Society, 
where  they  were  not  at  first  thought  worth  so  much  notice  as 
to  be  printed  in  their  Transactions.  One  paper,  which  I 
wrote  for  Mr.  Kinnersley,  on  the  sameness  of  lightning  with 
electricity,  I  sent  to  Dr.  Mitchel,  an  acquaintance  of  mine, 
and  one  of  the  members  also  of  that  society,  who  wrote  me 
word  that  it  had  been  read,  but  was  laughed  at  by  the  con- 
noisseurs. The  papers,  however,  being  shown  to  Dr.  Fother- 
gill,  he  thought  them  of  too  much  value  to  be  stifled,  and 
advis'd  the  printing  of  them.  Mr.  Collinson  then  gave  them 
to  Cave  for  publication  in  his  Gentleman's  Magazine ;  but  he 
chose  to  print  them  separately  in  a  pamphlet,  and  Dr.  Fother- 
gill  wrote  the  preface.  Cave,  it  seems,  judged  rightly  for  his 
profit,  for  by  the  additions  that  arrived  afterward,  they  swell'd 

37° 


THE    SCIENTIST 

to  a  quarto  volume,  which  has  had  five  editions,  and  cost  him 
nothing  for  copy-money.  .  .  .  What  gave  my  book  the  more 
sudden  and  general  celebrity,  was  the  success  of  one  of  its 
proposed  experiments,  made  by  Messrs.  Dalibard  and  De  Lor 
at  Marly,  for  drawing  lightning  from  the  clouds.  This  en- 
gag'd  the  public  attention  everywhere.  M.  de  Lor,  who  had 
an  apparatus  for  experimental  philosophy,  and  lectur'd  in  that 
branch  of  science,  undertook  to  repeat  what  he  called  the 
Philadelphia  Experiments;  and,  after  they  were  performed 
before  the  king  and  court,  all  the  curious  of  Paris  flocked  to  see 
them.  I  will  not  swell  this  narrative  with  an  account  of  that 
capital  experiment,  nor  of  the  infinite  pleasure  I  receiv'd  in  the 
success  of  a  similar  one  I  made  soon  after  with  a  kite  at  Phila- 
delphia, as  both  are  to  be  found  in  the  histories  of  electricity. 
"  Dr.  Wright,  an  English  physician,  when  at  Paris,  wrote  to 
a  friend,  who  was  of  the  Royal  Society,  an  account  of  the 
high  esteem  my  experiments  were  in  among  the  learned  abroad, 
and  of  their  wonder  that  my  writings  had  been  so  little  noticed 
in  England.  The  society,  on  this,  resum'd  the  consideration 
of  the  letters  that  had  been  read  to  them ;  and  the  celebrated 
Dr.  Watson  drew  up  a  summary  account  of  them,  and  of  all 
I  had  afterwards  sent  to  England  on  the  subject,  which  he 
accompanied  with  some  praise  of  the  writer.  This  summary 
was  then  printed  in  their  Transactions;  and  some  members 
of  the  society  in  London,  particularly  the  very  ingenious  Mr. 
Canton,  having  verified  the  experiment  of  procuring  lightning 
from  the  clouds  by  a  pointed  rod,  and  acquainting  them  with 
the  success,  they  soon  made  me  more  than  amends  for  the 
slight  with  which  they  had  before  treated  me.  Without  my 
having  made  any  application  for  that  honour,  they  chose  me 
a  member,  and  voted  that  I  should  be  excus'd  the  customary 
payments,  which  would  have  amounted  to  twenty-five  guineas ; 
and  ever  since  have  given  me  their  Transactions  gratis.  They 
also  presented  me  with  the  gold  medal  of  Sir  Godfrey  Copley 
for  the  year  1753,  the  delivery  of  which  was  accompanied  by 
a  very  handsome  speech  of  the  president,  Lord  Macclesfield, 
wherein  I  was  highly  honoured." 

Although  the  use  of  the  lightning-rod,  or,  as  it  was 
then  more  often  called,  "  Franklin's  rod,"  spread  rapidly, 

37 1 


THE    SCIENTIST 

there  was  a  strong  opposition  at  first  to  its  employment. 
John  Adams  reports  one  wiseacre  who,  as  late  as  1758, 
"  began  to  prate  upon  the  presumption  of  philosophy  in 
erecting  iron  rods  to  draw  the  lightning  from  the  clouds. 
His  brains  were  in  a  ferment,  and  he  railed  and  foamed 
against  those  points  and  the  presumption  that  erected 
them,  in  language  taken  partly  from  Scripture  and  partly 
from  the  disputes  of  tavern  philosophy,  in  as  wild,  mad 
a  manner  as  King  Lear  raves  against  his  daughters' 
disobedience  and  ingratitude,  and  against  the  meanness 
of  the  storm  in  joining  with  his  daughters  against  him, 
in  Shakspeare's  Lear.  He  talked  of  presuming  upon 
God,  as  Peter  attempted  to  walk  upon  the  water;  at- 
tempting to  control  the  artillery  of  heaven — an  execu- 
tion that  mortal  man  can't  stay."  More  publicly,  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Prince,  ignoring  the  fact  that  earthquakes 
had  occurred  before  the  erection  of  these  safeguards, 
found  in  them  the  cause  for  the  shock  of  1755,  and  in  a 
sermon  urged  that 

"  The  more  Points  of  Iron  are  erected  round  the  Earth,  to 
draw  the  Electrical  Substance  out  of  the  Air ;  the  more  the 
Earth  must  needs'  be  charged  with  it.  And  therefor  it  seems 
worthy  of  consideration,  Whether  any  Part  si  the  Earth  being 
fuller  of  this  terrible  Substance  may  not  be  more  exposed 
to  more  shocking  Earthquakes.  In  'Boston  are  more  erected 
than  anywhere  else  in  New-England ;  and  Boston  seems 
to  be  more  dreadfully  shaken.  Oh!  there  is  no  getting  out 
of  the  mighty  Hand  of  God!  If  we  think  to  avoid  it 
in  the  Air,  we  cannot  in  the  Earth.  Yea,  it  may  grow  more 
fatal." 

So  late  as  1770  it  was  maintained  that  "  as  lightning  is 
one  of  the  means  of  punishing  the  sins  of  mankind,  and 

373 


THE   MANY  SIDED   FRANKLIN 

of  warning  them  from  the  commission  of  sin,  it  is  im- 
pious to  prevent  its  full  execution." 

There  was  a  yet  stranger  controversy  over  the  dis- 
covery, long  after  the  general  principle  had  gained 
well-nigh  universal  acceptance.  A  powder-magazine  in 
Europe  having  been  exploded  by  lightning,  the  British 
Board  of  Ordnance  requested  the  Royal  Society  to 
recommend  the  best  method  for  preserving  the  arsenals 
at  Purfleet  from  such  a  danger.  The  society  appointed 
a  committee  of  five,  of  which  Franklin  was  one,  to  pre- 
pare a  report,  and  they  recommended  Franklin's  system. 
But  from  this  one  member,  Benjamin  Wilson,  dissented 
so  far  as  to  advocate  the  use  of  blunt,  and  not  pointed, 
ends'to  the  rods.  The  latter  were  adopted,  and  Wilson, 
"  grown  angry,"  published  two  pamphlets,  so  Franklin 
states,  "  reflecting  on  the  Royal  Society,  the  committee, 
and  myself,  with  some  asperity."  To  this  Franklin 
made  no  reply,  for,  he  explained,  "  I  have  never  entered 
into  any  controversy  in  defence  of  my  philosophical 
opinions ;  I  leave  them  to  take  their  chance  in  the  world. 
If  they  are  right,  truth  and  experience  will  support 
them ;  if  wrong,  they  ought  to  be  refuted  and  rejected. 
Disputes  are  apt  to  sour  one's  temper,  and  disturb  one's 
quiet.  I  have  no  private  interest  in  the  reception  of 
my  inventions  by  the  world,  having  never  made,  nor 
proposed  to  make,  the  least  profit  by  any  of  them." 
His  friend  Ingenhousz,  however,  took  up  the  contro- 
versy, and  was,  so  Franklin  laughingly  noted,  "  as  much 
heated  about  this  one  point,  as  the  Jansenists  and  Mo- 
linists  were  about  the  five."  There  the  matter  would, 
no  doubt,  have  ended  had  not  a  new  antagonist  entered 

374 


THE    SCIENTIST 

the  field.  George  III,  having  good  cause  to  dislike 
Franklin's  political  opinions,  sought  to  discredit  his 
scientific  ones  by  ordering  the  substitution  of  blunt  for 
pointed  ends  on  Kew  Palace.  Such  was  his  desire  to 
prove  Franklin  in  error  that  he  asked  Sir  John  Pringle 
to  give  an  opinion  in  favor  of  the  change,  only  to  receive 
the  reply  that  "  the  laws  of  Nature  were  not  changeable 


JOSEPH-IGNACE    GUILLOTIN. 

From  an  engraving  by  F.  Bonneville. 

at  royal  pleasure."  It  was  then  "  intimated  to  him  by 
the  King's  authority  that  a  President  of  the  Royal 
Society  entertaining  such  an  opinion  ought  to  resign, 
and  he  resigned  accordingly,"  at  the  same  time  being 
deprived  of  his  position  as  physician  to  the  queen,  with 
all  favor  in  court  circles,  so  that  he  was  forced  to  leave 
London  and  live  in  extreme  poverty.  Franklin,  unwit- 
ting of  the  injury  it  had  brought  his  friend,  asserted  that 

375 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

the  king's  action  was  "  a  matter  of  small  importance  to 
me,"  adding:  "  If  I  had  a  wish  about  it,  it  would  be 
that  he  had  rejected  them  altogether  as  ineffectual.  For 
it  is  only  since  he  thought  himself  and  family  safe  from  the 
thunder  of  Heaven  that  he  dared  to  use  his  own  thunder 
in  destroying  his  innocent  subjects."  However  the  court 
might  side  with  the  king,  the  wits  did  otherwise,  and  one 
of  them  produced  an  epigram  well  worth  quotation : 

"  While  you,  great  George,  for  safety  hunt, 
And  sharp  conductors  change  for  blunt, 

The  nation  's  out  of  joint. 
Franklin  a  wiser  course  pursues, 
And  all  your  thunder  fearless  views, 
By  keeping  to  the  point." 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  this  action  of  royalty  with 
one  of  the  earliest  experiments  or  tricks  in  electricity 
which  Franklin  attempted,  and  which  he  described  to 
Collinson  in  the  following  words : 

"  The  magical  picture  is  made  thus.  Having  a  large  mez- 
zotinto  with  a  frame  and  glass,  suppose  of  the  King  (God 
preserve  him),  take  out  the  print,  and  cut  a  pannel  out  of  it 
near  two  inches  distant  from  the  frame  all  round.  If  the  cut 
is  through  the  picture,  it  is  not  the  worse.  With  thin  paste, 
or  gum- water,  fix  the  border  that  is  cut  off  on  the  inside  the 
glass,  pressing  it  smooth  and  close ;  then  fill  up  the  vacancy 
by  gilding  the  glas  •  well  with  leaf-gold  or  brass.  Gild  likewise 
the  inner  edge  of  the  back  of  the  frame  all  round,  except  the 
top  part,  and  form  a  communication  between  that  gilding  and 
the  gilding  behind  the  glass ;  then  put  in  the  board,  and  that 
side  is  finished.  Turn  up  the  glass,  and  gild  the  fore  side 
exactly  over  the  back  gilding,  and  when  it  is  dry,  cover  it  by 
pasting  on  the  pannel  of  the  picture  that  hath  been  cut  out, 
observing  to  bring  the  correspondent  parts  of  the  border  and 

376 


THE   SCIENTIST 

picture  together,  by  which  the  picture  will  appear  of  a  piece, 
as  at  first,  only  part  is  behind  the  glass,  and  part  before. 
Hold  the  picture  horizontally  by  the  top,  and  place  a  little 
movable  gilt  crown  on  the  King's  head.  If  now  the  picture 
be  moderately  electrified,  and  another  person  take  hold  of  the 
frame  with  one  hand,  so  that  his  fingers  touch  its  inside  gild- 
ing, and  with  the  other  hand  endeavour  to  take  off  the  crown, 
he  will  receive  a  terrible  blow,  arid  fail  in  the  attempt.  If 
the  picture  were  highly  charged,  the  consequence  might  per- 
haps be  as  fatal  as  that  of  high  treason  ;  for,  when  the  spark 
is  taken  through  a  quire  of  paper  laid  on  the  picture  by  means 
of  a  wire  communication,  it  makes  a  fair  hole  through  every 
sheet,  that  is,  through  forty-eight  leaves,  though  a  quire  of 
paper  is  thought  good  armour  against  the  push  of  a  sword,  or 
even  against  a  pistol  bullet,  and  the  crack  is  exceeding  loud. 
The  operator,  who  holds  the  picture  by  the  upper  end, 
where  the  inside  of  the  frame  is  not  gilt,  to  prevent  its  falling, 
feels  nothing  of  the  shock,  and  may  touch  the  face  of  the 
picture  without  danger,  which  he  pretends  is  a  test  of  his 
loyalty.  If  a  ring  of  persons  take  the  shock  among  them, 
the  experiment  is  called  The  Conspirators." 

It  was  in  1757  that  Franklin's  notice  was  attracted  to 
the  effect  of  oil  on  "  the  stilling  of  waves."  What  served 
to  excite  his  interest,  he  states,  was  observing,  in  a  con- 
voy, "  the  wakes  of  two  of  the  ships  to  be  remarkably 
smooth,  while  all  the  others  were  ruffled  by  the  wind, 
which  blew  fresh.  Being  puzzled  with  the  differing 
appearance,  I  at  last  pointed  it  out  to  our  captain,  and 
asked  him  the  meaning  of  it.  'The  cooks,'  said  he, 
'  have,  I  suppose,  been  just  emptying  their  greasy  water 
through  the  scuppers,  which  has  greased  the  sides  of 
those  ships  a  little.'  And  this  answer  he  gave  me  with 
an  air  of  some  little  contempt,  as  to  a  person  ignorant 
of  what  everybody  else  knew.  In  my  own  mind  I  at 
first  slighted  his  solution,  though  I  was  not  able  to 

377 


L4Li*J£*+t& 


LETTER  OF  MESMER  TO   FRANKLIN. 
Original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


THE    SCIENTIST 

think  of  another."  However  unsatisfactory  the  explana- 
tion appeared  to  the  inquirer,  he  was  too  instinctively 
the  scientist,  and  was  too  well  aware  that  "  the  learned 
are  apt  to  slight  too  much  the  knowledge  of  the  vulgar," 
not  to  bear  it  in  memory,  and 

"  At  length  being  at  Clapham,  where  there  is,  on  the  com- 
mon, a  large  pond,  which  I  observed  one  day  to  be  very 
rough  with  the  wind,  I  fetched  out  a  cruet  of  oil,  and  dropped 
a  little  of  it  on  the  water.  I  saw  it  spread  itself  with  surpris- 
ing swiftness  upon  the  surface  ;  but  the  effect  of  smoothing  the 
waves  was  not  produced ;  for  I  had  applied  it  first  on  the  lee- 
ward side  of  the  pond,  where  the  waves  were  greatest;  and 
the  wind  drove  my  oil  back  upon  the  shore.  I  then  went  to 
the  windward  side  where  they  began  to  form ;  and  there  the 
oil,  though  not  more  than  a  teaspoonful,  produced  an  instant 
calm  over  a  space  several  yards  square,  which  spread  amaz- 
ingly, and  extended  itself  gradually  till  it  reached  the  lee  side, 
making  all  that  quarter  of  the  pond,  perhaps  half  an  acre,  as 
smooth  as  a  looking-glass.  After  this  I  contrived  to  take  with 
me,  whenever  I  went  into  the  country,  a  little  oil  in  the  upper 
hollow  joint  of  my  bamboo  cane,  with  which  I  might  repeat 
the  experiment  as  opportunity  should  offer,  and  I  found  it 
constantly  to  succeed." 

His  experiments,  and  especially  one  he  made  at  Ports- 
mouth, during  a  gale,  in  the  presence  of  some  naval 
officers  and  members  of  the  Royal  Society,  led  to  much 
discussion,  and  served  to  spread  the  knowledge  gener- 
ally. It  is  a  typical  instance  of  the  qualities  of  his  mind 
that  a  casual  incident  and  question  were  sufficient  to  set 
him  investigating,  and  thus  to  bring  to  the  attention  of 
the  learned  a  really  important  truth,  long  known  to 
more  practical  men. 

A  very  similar  though  not  so  successful  an  attempt  to 
spread  the  knowledge  that  had  been  learned,  not  rea- 

379 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

soned,  was  in  his  observations  upon  and  mapping  of  the 
Gulf  Stream.  As  early  as  1745  he  was  puzzling  why 
ships  should  have  "  much  shorter  voyages "  from 
America  to  England  than  in  returning,  and  wishing  he 
"  had  mathematics  enough  to  satisfy  myself"  that  it 
was  "  not  in  some  degree  owing  to  the  diurnal  motion 
of  the  earth." 

"About  the  year  1769  or  1770  there  was  an  application 
made  by  the  Board  of  Customs  at  Boston  to  the  Lords  of  the 
Treasury  in  London,  complaining  that  the  packets  between 
Falmouth  and  New  York  were  generally  a  fortnight  longer 
in  their  passages  than  merchant-ships  from  London  to  Rhode 
Island,  and  proposing  that  for  the  future  they  should  be 
ordered  to  Rhode  Island  instead  of  New  York.  Being  then 
concerned  in  the  management  of  the  American  post-office,  I 
happened  to  be  consulted  on  the  occasion ;  and  it  appearing 
strange  to  me  that  there  should  be  such  a  difference  between 
two  places  scarce  a  day's  run  asunder,  especially  when  the 
merchant-ships  are  generally  deeper  laden  and  more  weakly 
manned  than  the  packets,  and  had  from  London  the  whole 
length  of  the  river  and  channel  to  run  before  they  left  the  land 
of  England,  while  the  packets  had  only  to  go  from  Falmouth, 
I  could  not  but  think  the  fact  misunderstood  or  misrepresented. 
There  happened  then  to  be  in  London  a  Nantucket  sea-cap- 
tain of  my  acquaintance,  to  whom  I  communicated  the  affair. 
He  told  me  he  believed  the  fact  might  be  true  ;  but  the  differ- 
ence was  owing  to  this,  that  the  Rhode  Island  captains  were 
acquainted  with  the  Gulf  Stream,  which  those  of  the  English 
packets  were  not.  '  We  are  well  acquainted  with  that  stream,' 
says  he,  '  because  in  our  pursuit  of  whales,  which  keep  near 
the  sides  of  it,  but  are  not  to  be  met  with  in  it,  we  run  down 
along  the  sides,  and  frequently  cross  it  to  change^our  side ; 
and  in  crossing  it  have  sometimes  met  and  spoke  with  those 
packets  who  were  in  the  middle  of  it  and  stemming  it.  •  We 
have  informed  them  that  they  were  stemming  a  current  that 
was  against  them  to  the  value  of  three  miles  an  hour,  and 
advised  them  to  cross  it  and  get  out  of  it ;  but  they  were  too 

380 


SIR  JOSEI'II   BANKS. 
From  a  portrait  in  the  Royal  Society,  London. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

wise  to  be  counselled  by  simple  American  fishermen.  When 
the  winds  are  but  light,'  he  added,  '  they  are  carried  back  by 
the  current  more  than  they  are  forwarded  by  the  wind ;  and, 
if  the  wind  be  good,  the  subtraction  of  seventy  miles  a  day 
from  their  course  is  of  some  importance.'  I  then  observed 
it  was  a  pity  no  notice  was  taken  of  this  current  upon  the 
charts,  and  requested  him  to  mark  it  out  for  me,  which  he 
readily  complied  with,  adding  directions  for  avoiding  it  in 
sailing  from  Europe  to  North  America.  I  procured  it  to  be 
engraved  by  order  from  the  general  post-office,  on  the  old 
chart  of  the  Atlantic,  at  Mount  &  Page's,  Tower  Hill;  and 
copies  were  sent  down  to  Falmouth  for  the  captains  of  the 
packets,  who  slighted  it,  however." 

With  each  crossing  of  the  ocean  that  Franklin  made 
after  learning  of  this  current,  he  kept  a  careful  record  of 
the  temperature  of  the  water,  and  from  the  resulting 
data  concluded  that  "  a  stranger  may  know  when  he  is 
in  the  Gulf  Stream,  by  the  warmth  of  the  water,  which 
is  much  greater  than  that  of  the  water  on  each  side  of 
it."  Not  content  with  this,  he  ingeniously  contrived  as 
well  to  discover  how  deep  the  current  extended. 

One  service  he  rendered  the  scientific  world  less  di- 
rectly was  something  he  did  in  1779,  at  the  request  of 
his  friend  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  then  president  of  the  Royal 
Society.  The  exploring  expedition  under  Captain  James 
Cook — whom  Franklin  had  known  personally  in  London 
—was  then  at  sea,  but,  owing  to  the  condition  of  war 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain,  was  liable 
to  capture.  To  prevent  this,  Franklin,  then  in  France, 
issued  a  printed  notice  "  To  all  captains  and  commanders 
of  armed  ships  acting  by  commission  from  the  Con- 
gress," which  recommended  "  most  earnestly  "  "  that' in 
case  the  said  ship,  which  is  now  expected  to  be  soon 

382 


THE    SCIENTIST 

i-n  the  European  seas  on  her  return,  should  happen  to 
fall  into  your  hands,  you  would  not  consider  her  as  an 
enemy,  nor  suffer  any  plunder  to  be  made  of  the  effects 
contained  in  her,  nor  obstruct  her  immediate  return  to 
England,"  the  undertaking  being  "  truly  laudable  in 
itself,  as  the  increase  of  geographical  knowledge  facili- 
tates the  communication  between  distant  nations,  in  the 
exchange  of  useful  products  and  manufactures,  and  the 
extension  of  arts,  whereby  the  common  enjoyments  of 
human  life  are  multiplied  and  augmented,  and  science 
of  other  kinds  increased  to  the  benefit  of  mankind  in 
general."  When  the  account  of  Cook's  voyage  was 
printed  at  the  expense  of  the  English  government,  the 
Board  of  Admiralty  sent  a  copy  of  it  to  Franklin,  with 
a  letter  from  Lord  Howe  signifying  that  it  was  presented 
by  direction  of  the  king,  in  recognition  of  Franklin's 
action ;  and  one  of  the  gold  medals  struck  by  the  Royal 
Society  in  honor  of  Cook  was  likewise  given  him. 

Such  are  his  most  important  contributions  to  science, 
which  represent,  however,  only  a  small  part  of  the  in- 
vestigations he  conducted.  He  first  suggested  that  the 
aurora  was  an  electrical  phenomenon.  By  means  of 
little  squares  of  different-colored  cloths  laid  on  "  the 
snow  in  a  bright  sunshiny  morning"  he  demonstrated 
the  different  effect  of  color  as  to  heat.  He  studied  and 
wrote  upon  sun-spots,  shooting-stars,  light,  heat,  fire, 
air,  evaporation,  the  tides,  rainfall,  geology,  the  wind, 
whirlwinds,  water-spouts,  ventilation,  sound,  and  a  "  uni- 
versal fluid  "  or  ether.  He  followed  closely  such  me- 
chanical developments  as  the  balloon  and  the  steam- 
boat, and  even  such  minor  ones  as  improvements  in 

383 


CAPTAIN  JAMES  COOK. 
In  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  London. 


THE   SCIENTIST 

the  methods  of  manufacturing  air-pumps,  guns,  wheels, 
clocks,  etc. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Franklin's  greatest  plea- 
sure consisted  in  scientific  research.  When  he  retired 
from  active  printing,  he  said :  "  I  flatter'd  myself  that 
...  I  had  secured  leisure  during  the  rest  of  my  life 
for  philosophical  studies  and  amusements  "  ;  when,  later, 
political  employments  seized  hold  of  him,  he  wrote 
sighingly  to  Priestley  :  "  You  judge  rightly  in  supposing 
that  I  have  not  much  time  at  present  to  consider  philo- 
sophical matters";  and  a  little  later  he  complained  to 
Beccaria :  "  I  find  myself  here  immersed  in  affairs  which 
absorb  my  attention,  and  prevent  my  pursuing  those 
studies  in  which  I  always  found  the  highest  satisfaction  ; 
and  I  am  now  grown  so  old  as  hardly  to  hope  for  a 
return  of  that  leisure  and  tranquillity  so  necessary  for 
philosophical  disquisitions."  During  the  Revolution  he 
"  assured  "  the  president  of  the  Royal  Society 

"  That  I  long  earnestly  for  a  return  of  those  peaceful  times, 
when  I  could  sit  down  in  sweet  society  with  my  English 
philosophical  friends,  communicating  to  each  other  new  dis- 
coveries, and  proposing  improvements  of  old  ones ;  all  tend- 
ing to  extend  the  power  of  man  over  matter,  avert  or  diminish 
the  evils  he  is  subject  to,  or  augment  the  number  of  his  enjoy- 
ments. Much  more  happy  should  I  be  thus  employed  in 
your  most  desirable  company,  than  in  that  of  all  the  grandees 
of  the  earth  projecting  plans  of  mischief,  however  necessary 
they  may  be  supposed  for  obtaining  greater  good." 

Besides  carrying  on  his  own  studies,  Franklin  was 
never  wanting  in  any  assistance  he  could  give  to  other 
inquirers,  and  first  or  last  he  was  in  correspondence  with 
almost  every  scientist  of  note  on  two  continents.  In 
America,  even  before  he  had  made  his  name  known  by 

385 


ERASMUS    DARWIN. 
In  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  London. 


THE    SCIENTIST 

his  discoveries,  he  eagerly  sought  the  friendship  of  the 
few  men  of  scientific  attainment,  such  as  John  Winthrop, 
James  Bowdoin,  Jared  Eliot,  Cadwallader  Golden,  James 
Logan,  and  John  Bartram.  His  lifelong  friendships  with 
Sir  William  Watson,  Sir  John  Pringle,  Peter  Collinson, 
and  Sir  Joseph  Banks  have  been  referred  to,  and  he  was 
equally  intimate  with  Sir  William  Herschel  and  many 
others  of  his  fellow-members  of  the  Royal  Society,  which 
even  the  alienations  of  the  Revolutionary  War  did  not 
interrupt ;  and  it  is  interesting  to  find  Erasmus  Darwin 
saying  in  a  letter  to  him :  "  Whilst  I  am  writing  to  the 
Philosopher  &  a  friend,  I  can  scarcely  forget  that  I  am 
also  writing  to  the  greatest  Statesman  of  the  present  or 
perhaps  any  century,  who  spread  the  happy  contagion 
of  liberty  among  his  countrymen ;  &  like  the  greatest 
man  of  all  antiquity,  the  leader  of  the  Jews,  delivered 
them  from  the  house  of  bondage  &  the  scourge  of 
oppression."  His  chief  circle  of  friends  in  France  were 
scientists :  Guillotin,  Lavoisier,  Condorcet,  Daubenton, 
D'Alembert,  Leroy,  Dalibard,  and  Buffon.  But  per- 
haps the  pleasantest  of  all  his  scientific  friendships  to 
study  are  those  he  gave  to  far  younger  men,  and  his 
advice  and  encouragement  to  David  Rittenhouse  in 
Philadelphia,  and  Joseph  Priestley  in  England,  bore 
fruit  almost  as  important  as  his  own  labors.  "You 
know  the  just  esteem,"  Jefferson  wrote,  "  which  attached 
itself  to  Dr.  Franklin's  science,  because  he  always  en- 
deavored to  direct  it  to  something  useful  in  private  life. 
The  chemists  have  not  been  attentive  enough  to  this." 
Franklin  himself  asked,  "  What  signifies  philosophy  that 
does  not  apply  to  some  use?  " 

387 


THE  ENGLISH  ALMANAC  FROM  WHICH  FRANKLIN 
BORROWED  THE  NAME. 


X 

THE    HUMORIST 

NOTHING  more  impresses  the  student  of  American 
history,  in  tracing  the  psychological  development 
of  the  people,  than  the  absence  of  humor  in  the  first 
hundred  and  fifty  years  following  the  settlement  of  the 
country.  The  English  literature  on  which  the  colonists 
had  been  bred  showed  no  lack  of  the  comic  Muse,  and, 
indeed,  unquestionably  proves  a  greater  appreciation 
.of  wit  and  humor  than  its  present-day  successor.  In 
America,  however,  either  because  the  immigrants  had 
been  recruited  from  the  unfortunate  and  the  religiously 
austere,  or  because  the  hardness  of  the  conditions  re- 
sulted in  a  sadness  which  tinctured  the  lives  of  the 
people,  there  seems  to  have  been  a  practical  extinction 
of  all  sense  of  the  humorous.  Notable  as  Franklin  is 

388 


THE  HUMORIST 

for  many  things,  perhaps  his  most  remarkable  attribute 
is  that  the  future  historian  of  the  now  famous  American 
humor  must  begin  its  history  with  the  first  publication 
of  Poor  Richard. 

This  does  not  mean  that  the  great  American's  sense 
of  wit  and  fun  began  with  the  publication  of  his  Almanac. 
In  the  letters  of  Mrs.  Dogood,  written  when  he  was 
sixteen  years  old,  he  shows  already  a  humorous  turn 
of  mind,  and  any  one  who  has  delved  in  the  extraor- 
dinary mortuary  lucubrations,  which  were  once  as  pop- 
ular in  New  England  as  a  modern  novel  is  to-day,  will 
appreciate  the  wittiness  of  the  following  extract  from 
one  of  her  letters : 

"  A  Receipt  to  make  a  New -England 
"  Funeral  Elegy. 

"For  the  Title  of  your  Elegy.  Of  these  you  may  have  enough 
ready  made  to  your  Hands :  but  if  you  should  chuse  to  make 
it  your  self,  you  must  be  sure  not  to  omit  the  Words  sEtatis 
Suez,  which  will  beautify  it  exceedingly. 

"  For  the  Subject  of  your  Elegy.  Take  one  of  your  Neigh- 
bours who  has  lately  departed  this  Life ;  it  is  no  great  matter 
at  what  Age  the  Party  dy'd,  but  it  will  be  best  if  he  went  away 
suddenly,  being  Killd,  Drowrfd,  or  Froze  to  Death. 

"  Having  chosen  the  Person,  take  all  his  Virtues,  Excellencies, 
&c.  and  if  he  have  not  enough,  you  may  borrow  some  to  make 
up  a  sufficient  Quantity :  To  these  add  his  last  Words,  dying 
Expressions,  &c.  if  they  are  to  be  had ;  mix  all  these  together, 
and  be  sure  you  strain  them  well.  Then  season  all  with  a 
Handful  or  two  of  Melancholy  Expressions,  such  as,  Dread- 
ful, Deadly,  cruel  cold  Death,  unhappy  Fate,  weeping  Eyes,  &c. 
Having  mixed  all  these  Ingredients  well,  put  them  into  the  empty 
Scull  of  some  young  Harvard;  (but  in  Case  you  have  ne'er  a 
One  at  Hand,  you  may  use  your  own,)  there  let  them  Ferment 
for  the  Space  of  a  Fortnight,  and  by  that  Time  they  will  be 

2S*  389 


THE    MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

incorporated  into  a  Body,  which  take  out,  and  having  prepared 
a  sufficient  Quantity  of  double  Rhimes,  such  as,  Power,  Flower; 
Quiver,  Shiver;  Grieve  us,  Leave  its;  tell  you,  excel  you;  Ex- 
peditions, Physicians;  Fatigue  him,  Intrigue  him;  &c.  you  must 
spread  all  upon  Paper,  and  if  you  can  procure  a  Scrap  of 
Latin  to  put  at  the  End,  it  will  garnish  it  mightily  ;  then  having 
affixed  your  Name  at  the  Bottom,  with  a  Mcestus  Composuit, 
you  will  have  an  Excellent  Elegy. 

"  N.  B.  This  Receipt  will  serve  when  a  Female  is  the  Sub- 
ject of  your  Elegy,  provided  you  borrow  a  greater  Quantity 
of  Virtues,  Excellencies,  £c." 


Nor  is  this  the  only  indication  that  even  as  a  lad  he 
possessed  a  keen  appreciation  of  humor.  When  nearly 
eighty,  something,  he  relates,  "  put  me  in  mind  of  a  vio- 
lent High  Church  factor,  resident  in  Boston,  when  I  was 
a  boy.  He  had  bought  upon  speculation  a  Connecticut 
cargo  of  onions,  which  he  flattered  himself  he  might 
sell  again  to  great  profit,  but  the  price  fell,  and  they  lay 
upon  hand.  He  was  heartily  vexed  with  his  bargain, 
especially  when  he  observed  they  began  to  grow  in  the 
store  he  had  filled  with  them.  He  showed  them  one 
day  to  a  friend.  '  Here  they  are,'  said  he,  '  and  they 
are  growing  too !  I  damn  them  every  day  ;  but  I  think 
they  are  like  the  Presbyterians;  the  more  I  curse  them, 
the  more  they  grow.'  '  In  London  he  relates  that  he 
•was  popular  with  his  fellow-journeymen  printers  be- 
cause of  "my  being  esteem'd  a  pretty  good  Riggite, 
that  is,  a  jocular  verbal  satirist." 

His  natural  tendency  to  humor  is  shown  very  clearly 
by  the  columns  of  the  "Pennsylvania  Gazette  "  from 
the  time  that  Franklin  assumed  its  publication.  "  I  am 
about  courting  a  girl  I  have  had  but  little  acquaintance 

390 


THE  HUMORIST 

with,"  he  makes  a  correspondent  write.  "  How  shall  I 
come  to  a  knowledge  of  her  faults,  and  whether  she  has 
the  virtues  I  imagine  she  has  ?  "  "  Commend  her  among 
her  female  acquaintance,"  advises  Franklin.  Elsewhere, 
as  if  to  put  his  joke  in  concrete  form,  he  wrote : 

"  Daphnis,  says  Clio,  has  a  charming  Eye ; 
What  Pity  't  is  her  Shoulder  is  awry! 
Aspasia's  Shape  indeed — but  then  her  Air, 
'T  would  task  a  Conj'rer  to  find  Beauty  there. 
Without  a  But,  Hortensia  she  commends, 
The  first  of  Women,  and  the  best  of  Friends ; 
Owns  her  in  Person,  Wit,  Fame,  Virtue,  bright ; 
But  how  comes  this  to  pass?  —  She  dy'd  last  Night.  " 

He  makes  another  correspondent  beg  him  to  "  let  the 
prettiest  creature  in  this  place  know  (by  publishing  this) 
that  if  it  was  not  for  her  affectation  she  would  be  abso- 
lutely irresistible,"  and  in  the  next  issue  he  prints  six 
denials  of  the  charge,  from  as  many  different  women. 
In  the  same  vein  he  writes  the  paper  a  letter  from 
"Alice  Addertongue,"  who  describes  herself  as  "a 
young  girl  of  about  thirty-five,"  who  has  "  no  care  upon 
my  head  of  getting  a  living,  and  therefore  find  it  in  my 
duty,  as  well  as  inclination,  to  exercise  my  talent  at 
censure  for  the  good  of  my  country-folks.  .  .  .  Shall 
I  discover  my  secret?  " 

"  If  I  have  never  heard  ill  of  some  person,  I  always  impute 
it  to  defective  intelligence ;  for  there  are  none  without  their 
faults;  no,  not  one.  If  she  be  a  woman,  I  take  the  first  oppor- 
tunity to  let  all  her  acquaintance  know  that  I  have  heard  that 
one  of  the  handsomest  or  best  men  in  town  has  said  something 
in  praise  either  of  her  beauty,  her  wit,  her  virtue,  or  her  good 
management.  If  you  know  any  thing  of  human  nature,  you 

39 1 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

perceive  that  this  naturally  introduces  a  conversation  turning 
upon  all  her  failings,  past,  present,  and  to  come.  To  the  same 
purpose,  and  with  the  same  success,  I  cause  every  man  of 
reputation  to  be  praised  before  his  competitors  in  love,  busi- 
ness, or  esteem,  on  account  of  any  particular  qualification. 
Near  the  times  of  election,  if  I  find  it  necessary,  I  commend 
every  candidate  before  some  of  the  opposite  party,  listening 
attentively  to  what  is  said  of  him  in  answer.  But  commenda- 
tions in  this  latter  case  are  not  always  necessary,  and  should 
be  used  judiciously.  Of  late  years  I  needed  only  observe  what 
they  said  of  one  another  freely;  and  having,  for  the  help  of 
memory,  taken  account  of  all  informations  and  accusations 
received,  whoever  peruses  my  writings  after  my  death  may 
happen  to  think  that  during  a  certain  time  the  people  of  Penn- 
sylvania chose  into  all  their  offices  of  honor  and  trust  the 
veriest  knaves,  fools,  and  rascals  in  the  whole  province." 

It  must  not  be  inferred  that  all  his  fooling  was  at  the 
expense  of  the  gentler  sex.  A  "  Drinkers'  Dictionary  " 
held  up  a  masculine  weakness  to  scorn.  He  guyed  a 
pair  of  would-be  duelists  mercilessly,  and  in  a  little 
poem  ridiculed  a  second  mannish  extravagance : 

"  The  following  Lines  are  dedicated  to  the  Service  of  our 
FAIR  READERS;  which,  perhaps,  may  give  them  an  useful 
Hint  how  to  behave  upon  the  like  Occasion. 

"THE  FRIGHT. 

"  Myrtle  unsheath'd  his  shining  Blade, 

And  fix'd  its  Point  against  his  Breast : 
Then  gaz'd  upon  the  wond'ring  Maid, 
And  thus  his  dire  Resolve  express'd. 

"  Since,  cruel  Fair!  with  cold  Disdain 
You  still  return  my  raging  Love, 
Thought  is  but  Madness,  Life  is  Pain  : 
And  thus— at  once,— I  both  remove. 

392 


THE  HUMORIST 

"  O  stay  one  Moment!  —  CHLOE  said, 
And  trembling,  hasted  to  the  Door. 
Here,  Betty!— quick :  —a  Pail,  dear  Maid!— 
This  Madman  else  will  stain  the  Floor" 

In  every  way  the  editor  sought  to  inject  a  vein  of 
humor  into  his  columns.  A  sample  news-item  runs : 
"  An  unhappy  man,  one  Sturgis,  upon  some  Difference 
with  his  Wife,  determined  to  drown  himself  in  the 
River;  and  she,  (kind  Wife)  went  with  him,  it  seems, 
to  see  it  faithfully  performed,  and  accordingly  stood 
by  silent  and  unconcerned  during  the  whole  Transac- 
tion :  He  jump'd  in  near  Carpenter's  Wharff,  but  was 
timely  taken  out  again,  before  what  he  came  about  was 
thoroughly  effected,  so  that  they  were  both  obliged  to 
return  home  as  they  came,  and  put  up  for  that  Time 
with  the  Disappointment."  In  another  issue,  printing 
the  fact  that  a  Bucks  County  farmer  had  his  pewter 
buttons  melted  off  his  "  waistband  "  by  a  flash  of  light- 
ning, he  adds  the  comment:  "  'T  is  well  nothing  else 
thereabouts  was  made  of  pewter." 

How  he  made  jokes  of  his  own  typographical  errors, 
and  how  he  joked  his  fellow-editors,  has  been  told 
already ;  and  his  quickness  to  seize  an  opportunity  is 
shown  by  a  very  typical  reply  to  one  of  these,  in  a  letter 
addressed  to  himself: 

"  MR.  FRANKLIN,  I  am  the  Author  of  a  Copy  of  Verses  in  the 
last  Mercury.  It  was  my  real  Intention  [to]  appear  open,  and 
not  basely  with  my  Vizard  on,  attack  a  Man  who  had  fairly 
unmasked.  Accordingly  I  subscribed  my  Name  at  full 
Length,  in  my  Manuscript  sent  to  my  Brother  B—d;  but  he, 
for  some  incomprehensible  Reason,  inserted  the  two  initial 
Letters  only,  viz.  B.  L.  'T  is  true,  every  Syllable  of  the  Per- 

393 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

formance  discovers  me  to  be  the  Author,  but  as  I  meet  with 
much  Censure  on  the  Occasion,  I  request  you  to  inform  the 
Publick,  that  I  did  not  desire  my  Name  should  be  conceal'd ; 
and  that  the  remaining  Letters  are,  O,  C,  K,  H,  E,  A,  D." 

His  irresistible  inclination  to  screw  a  joke  out  of 
everything  is  illustrated  by  the  scrapes  he  got  himself 
into  with  his  advertisers.  Employed  to  print  an  an- 
nouncement of  the  sailing  of  a  ship,  he  added  an  "  N.  B." 
of  his  own,  to  the  effect  that  among  the  passengers 
"  No  Sea  Hens,  nor  Black  Gowns  will  be  admitted  on 
any  terms."  Some  of  the  clergy,  properly  incensed, 
withdrew  their  subscriptions  from  the  "  Gazette."  Yet 
this  did  not  cure  him  of  the  tendency,  and  he  was 
quickly  offending  again.  One  Alexander  Miller,  "per- 
uke maker  in  Second  Street,  Philadelphia,"  by  adver- 
tisement acquainted  "  his  customers  that  he  intends 
to  leave  off  the  shaving  business  after  the  22nd  of 
August  next,"  and  the  paper  having  an  overplus  of 
space,  Franklin  proceeded  to  tag  on  to  this  notification 
a  humorous  article  on  barbers,  who,  he  pointed  out, 
were  peculiarly  fitted  for  politics,  not  because  of  that 
particular  part  of  their  calling,  but  because  they  were 
also  adept  shavers  and  trimmers,  "  which  will  naturally 
lead  us  to  consider  the  near  relation  which  subsists 
between  shaving,  trimming  and  politics  "  ;  and,  congrat- 
ulating the  people  upon  this  advertised  retirement  of 
the  barber,  he  continued :  "  I  am  of  opinion  that  all 
possible  encouragement  ought  to  be  given  to  Examples 
of  this  Kind."  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  innocent 
advertiser  resented  this,  and  the  printer  was  called 
upon  to  explain.  "  I  had  no  animosity,"  he  wrote, 

394 


THE  HUMORIST 

"  against  the  person   whose  advertisement  I  made  the 
motto  of  my  paper,"  and   he   expressed   surprise  that 


UENJAM1X   WEST'S   PENCIL-SKETCH   OF   FRANKLIN. 
In  the  possession  of  the  Hon.  Samuel  W.  Pennypacker. 

"  my  paper  on  shavers  and  trimmers  in  the  last  Gazette  " 
should  be  "generally  condemned,"  which  he  "at  first 
imputed"  to  a  "want  of  taste  and  relish  for  pieces  of 

395 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

that  force  and  beauty  which  none  but  a  University  bred 
gentleman  can  produce";  but,  upon  advice  of  friends, 
"  whose  judgment  I  could  depend  on,"  he  thought 
it  best  to  express  regret  and  promise  reformation. 

A  pleasant  quality  of  this  love  of  humor  was  that 
Franklin  was  ever  as  ready  to  joke  at  his  o\vn  expense 
as  at  another's.  On  "Thursday  last,"  the  "Gazette" 
informed  its  readers,  "  a  certain  P — r  ('t  is  not  custom- 
ary to  give  names  at  length  on  these  occasions)  walk- 
ing carefully  in  clean  Clothes  over  some  Barrels  of  Tar 
on  Carpenter's  Wharff,  the  head  of  one  of  them  un- 
luckily gave  way,  and  let  a  Leg  of  him  in  above  the 
Knee.  Whether  he  was  upon  the  Catch  at  that  time, 
we  cannot  say,  but  't  is  certain  he  caught  a  Tar-tar. 
T  was  observed  he  sprang  out  again  right  briskly, 
verifying  the  common  saying,  As  nimble  as  a  Bee  in  a 
Tarbarrel.  You  must  know  there  are  several  sorts  of 
Bees  :  't  is  true  he  was  no  Honey  Bee,  nor  yet  a  Humble 
Bee ;  but  a  Boo-Bee  he  may  be  allowed  to  be,  namely 
B.  F."  So,  to  teach  a  moral,  he  wrote  his  fable  of  "  The 
Whistle,"  telling  of  how: 

"  When  I  was  a  child  of  seven  years  old,  my  friends,  on  a 
holiday,  filled  my  pocket  with  coppers.  I  went  directly  to  a 
shop  where  they  sold  toys  for  children ;  and  being  charmed 
with  the  sound  of  a  whistle,  that  I  met  by  the  way  in  the 
hands  of  another  boy,  I  voluntarily  offered  and  gave  all  my 
money  for  one.  I  then  came  home,  and  went  whistling  all 
over  the  house,  much  pleased  with  my  whistle,  but  disturbing 
the  family.  My  brothers,  and  sisters,  and  cousins,  under- 
standing the  bargain  I  had  made,  told  me  I  had  given  four 
times  as  much  for  it  as  it  was  worth ;  put  me  in  mind  what 
good  things  I  might  have  bought  with  the  rest  of  the  money ; 
and  laughed  at  me  so  much  for  my  folly,  that  I  cried  with 

396 


THE  HUMORIST 

vexation ;  and  the  reflection  gave  me  more  chagrin  than  the 
whistle  gave  me  pleasure.  This,  however,  was  afterwards  of 
use  to  me,  the  impression  continuing  on  my  mind;  so  that 
often,  when  I  was  tempted  to  buy  some  unnecessary  thing,  I 
said  to  myself,  Don't  give  too  much  for  the  whistle;  and  I  saved 
my  money." 


Better  still  was  an  incident  which  proves  him  truly 
an  incorrigible  joker.  "Two  nights  ago,"  he  states, 
"  being  about  to  kill  a  turkey  by  the  shock  from  two 
large  glass  jars,  containing  as  much  electrical  fire  as 
forty  common  phials,  I  inadvertently  took  the  whole 
through  my  own  arms  and  body,  by  receiving  the  fire 
from  the  united  top  wires  with  one  hand,  while  the 
other  held  a  chain  connected  with  the  outsides  of  both 
jars.  The  company  present  (whose  talking  to  me  and 
to  one  another,  I  suppose,  occasioned  my  inattention  to 
what  I  was  about)  say  that  the  flash  was  very  great, 
and  the  crack  as  loud  as  a  pistol ;  yet,  my  senses  being 
instantly  gone,  I  neither  saw  the  one  nor  heard  the 
other ;  nor  did  I  feel  the  stroke  on  my  hand.  ...  I 
.  .  .  felt  what  I  know  not  how  well  to  describe — a 
universal  blow  throughout  my  whole  body  from  head 
to  foot,  which  seemed  within  as  well  as  without ;  after 
which  the  first  thing  I  took  notice  of  was  a  violent, 
quick  shaking  of  my  body,  which  gradually  remitting, 
my  sense  as  gradually  returned."  Yet  the  moment 
he  became  conscious  enough  to  realize  what  had  oc- 
curred, he  remarked :  "  Well,  I  meant  to  kill  a  Turkey, 
and  instead,  I  nearly  killed  a  Goose." 

As  he  made  fun  of  his  errors,  so  he  did  of  his 
triumphs.  "  Poverty,  poetry,  and  new  titles  of  honour, 

397 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

make  men  ridiculous,"  he  once  wrote,  and  in  communi- 
cating to  a  friend  the  fact  that  the  King  of  France  had 
sent  him  his  "  thanks  and  compliments  "  for  his  "  useful 
discoveries  in  electricity,"  he  prefaced  it  with  the  story 
from  the  "  Tatler,"  "  of  a  girl  who  was  observed  to  grow 
suddenly  proud,  and  none  could  guess  the  reason,  till  it 
came  to  be  known  that  she  had  got  on  a  pair  of  new 
silk  garters.  Lest  you  should  be  puzzled  to  guess  the 
cause,  when  you  observe  any  thing  of  the  kind  in  me, 
I  think  I  will  not  hide  my  new  garters  under  my  petti- 
coats, but  take  the  freedom  to  show  them  to  you." 

But  his  supreme  self-joking  was  his  turning  his  own 
physical  torture  into  something  to  furnish  his  friends 
amusement.  "  You  know,"  he  wrote  one  of  these, 
"  that  Mme.  le  Goutte  has  given  me  good  advice  often," 
and  while  suffering  from  the  disease  he  penned  his 
"  Dialogue  between  Franklin  and  the  Gout,"  one  of  his 
most  delightful  pieces  of  persiflage,  of  which,  unfortu- 
nately, owing  to  its  length,  only  the  beginning  and  the 
end  can  be  quoted  : 

"Midnight,  22  October,  1780. 

"FRANKLIN.  Eh!  oh!  eh!  What  have  I  done  to  merit 
these  cruel  sufferings? 

"  GOUT.  Many  things;  you  have  ate  and  drank  too  freely, 
and  too  much  indulged  those  legs  of  yours  in  their  indolence. 

"  FRANKLIN.  Who  is  it  that  accuses  me? 

"  GOUT.   It  is  I,  even  I,  the  Gout. 

"  FRANKLIN.  What!  my  enemy  in  person? 

"  GOUT.   No,  not  your  enemy. 

"  FRANKLIN.  I  repeat  it,  my  enemy  ;  for  you  would  not  only 
torment  my  body  to  death,  but  ruin  my  good  name ;  you  re- 
proach me  as  a  glutton  and  a  tippler ;  now  all  the  world,  that 
knows  me,  will  allow  that  I  am  neither  the  one  nor  the  other. 

398 


THE  HUMORIST 

"  GOUT.  The  world  may  think  as  it  pleases  ;  it  is  always  very 
complaisant  to  itself,  and  sometimes  to  its  friends ;  but  I  very 
well  know  that  the  quantity  of  meat  and  drink  proper  for  a 
man,  who  takes  a  reasonable  degree  of  exercise,  would  be  too 
much  for  another,  who  never  takes  any.  .  .  . 

"  FRANKLIN.  Ah!  how  tiresome  you  are! 

"  GOUT.  Well,  then,  to  my  office  ;  it  should  not  be  forgotten 
that  I  am  your  physician.  There. 

"  FRANKLIN.   Ohhh!  what  a  devil  of  a  physician! 

"  GOUT.  How  ungrateful  you  are  to  say  so!  Is  it  not  I 
who,  in  the  character  of  your  physician,  have  saved  you  from 
the  palsy,  dropsy,  and  apoplexy?  One  or  other  of  which  would 
have  done  for  you  long  ago,  but  for  me. 

"  FRANKLIN.  I  submit,  and  thank  you  for  the  past,  but  en- 
treat the  discontinuance  of  your  visits  for  the  future  ;  for,  in  my 
mind,  one  had  better  die  than  be  cured  so  dolefully.  Permit 
me  just  to  hint,  that  I  have  also  not  been  unfriendly  to  you. 
I  never  feed  physician  or  quack  of  any  kind,  to  enter  the  list 
against  you ;  if  then  you  do  not  leave  me  to  my  repose,  it  may 
be  said  you  are  ungrateful  too. 

"  GOUT.  I  can  scarcely  acknowledge  that  as  any  objection. 
As  to  quacks,  I  despise  them ;  they  may  kill  you  indeed,  but 
cannot  injure  me.  And,  as  to  regular  physicians,  they  are  at 
last  convinced  that  the  gout,  in  such  a  subject  as  you  are,  is 
no  disease,  but  a  remedy;  and  wherefore  cure  a  remedy?— 
but  to  our  business, — there. 

"FRANKLIN.  Oh!  oh! — for  Heaven's  sake  leave  me!  and  I 
promise  faithfully  never  more  to  play  at  chess,  but  to  take 
exercise  daily,  and  live  temperately. 

"  GOUT.  I  know  you  too  well.  You  promise  fair ;  but,  after 
a  few  months  of  good  health,  you  will  return  to  your  old 
habits ;  your  fine  promises  will  be  forgotten  like  the  forms  of 
last  year's  clouds.  Let  us  then  finish  the  account,  and  I  will 
go.  But  I  leave  you  with  an  assurance  of  visiting  you  again 
at  a  proper  time  and  place ;  for  my  object  is  your  good,  and 
you  are  sensible  now  that  I  am  your  real  friend" 

One  very  noticeable  quality  of  all  Franklin's  humor 
is  that,  poke  fun  as  he  would  at  himself,  he  rarely  did 
so  at  others.  Not  once  in  twenty  was  his  humor  aimed 

399 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

at  an  individual,  and  he  appears  in  this  to  have  regarded 
Poor  Richard's  warnings  that  "  Thou  canst  not  joke  an 
enemy  into  a  friend,  but  thou  mayst  a  friend  into  an 
enemy,"  that  "Joke  went  out  and  brought  home  his 
fellow,  and  they  two  began  to  quarrel,"  and  that  "  He 
makes  a  foe  who  makes  a  jest." 

As  need  scarcely  be  said,  it  is  "  Poor  Richard's  Alma- 
nac "  which  embodies  the  bulk  of  the  humor  originated 
by  Franklin.  In  his  day  the  great  source  of  profit  to 
every  printer  was  the  almanac  which  was  issued  yearly, 
and  which  was  the  vade-mecum  in  every  household  that 
could  spare  the  necessary  two  or  three  pence  annually ; 
and  so  when  Franklin  set  up  his  press,  he  arranged  with 
Thomas  Godfrey,  a  local  scientist  of  some  note,  to 
furnish  him  with  the  "  copy "  for  an  annual  issue. 
Presently,  however,  Mrs.  Godfrey,  by  her  match-mak- 
ing schemes,  became  the  Discordia,  as  already  told.  If 
the  young  printer  took  philosophically  the  broken  heart, 
the  resulting  broken  friendship  was  more  serious,  for  he 
not  only  lost  Godfrey  as  his  tenant,  but  the  philomath 
carried  his  manuscript  to  a  rival  printer,  and  Franklin 
was  left  in  the  lurch  for  his  copy. 

In  this  predicament  he  apparently  wrote  his  own 
almanac,  but  knowing  that  his  name  would  hardly  give 
it  currency  among  readers  who  still  looked  upon  it  as 
dealing  in  magic,  witchcraft,  and  astrology,  he  adopted 
that  of  Richard  Saunder,  an  English  philomath  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  of  great  popularity,  but  since  quite 
eclipsed  by  his  more  popular  Western  namesake.  Under 
this  name,  therefore,  the  initial  number  was  issued  in 
the  latter  part  of  December,  1732,  when,  in  spite  of  its 

400 


THE  HUMORIST 

late  publication,  three  "  impressions  "  were  called  for  by 
the  popular  demand;  and  from  that  time  it  was  not 
merely  the  most  esteemed  almanac  in  Pennsylvania,  but 


Poor  Richard,  1733. 


A  N 

Almanack 

For  the  Year  ofChrift 

1  7  3  3» 

Being  the  Firft  after  I  EAP  YEAR: 

Jnd  fiaket  ft*"  thr  Citation  Years 

By  the  Account"  of  {he  E  flr.n  GrrrJri  7341 

By  the  Latin  Church,   when  O  cm    Y  6912 

By  the  Computation  of  W  H£  J742 

**  By  the  floma*  Chronology  5682. 

By  the  7«ir//&  Rabble*  5494 

Wherein  tj  contained 
The  Lonarions,  'Eclipfcs,  Judgment  of 
the  Weather,  Spring  Tides  Plants  Mo.  ions' & 
mutual  Afpe£K,'Sun  and  Moon's  Rifmg  and  Set- 
ring,  Length  of  Days.  Time  of  High  Water. 
Fairs,  Gnm«,  and  obfcrvable  Day* 
Fitted  totheLariru^col  Forrv  Degrees, 
and  a  Meridian  of  Five  Hours  VV<-rt  fforr  /»»//«,. 
hut  may  without  fenfiMe  Efor  fctve  all  the  ad- 
jacent Places,  even  from  Mro/oibwttn*/  ro  Stitth- 
Carolraa. 


J5y  tULHJRD  S/lUNDtRS,  Phi  lorn. 


PHILADFLPHIA: 
Printed  and  fold  by  B   FRJNKL/N.   af  rhr  Ne» 
Printing  Office  neai  the  Market 


TITLE-PAGE  OF   FIRST   ISSUE   OF   POOR   RICHARD. 

had  a  sale  as  far  north  as  Rhode  Island  and  as  far 
south  as  the  Carolinas,  and,  indeed,  it  was  the  first 
American  publication  which  broke  through  colonial 
boundaries.  The  secret  of  its  success  was  its  humor. 
26  401 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

The  calculations  were  no  more  accurate,  the  poetry  no 
better,  nor  the  printing  clearer,  than  were  those  of  the 
half-dozen  competitors  which  then  came  from  the  Penn- 
sylvania presses ;  but  in  the  colorless  life  of  the  frontier 
settlements  the  advent  of  this  little  pamphlet  of  a  dozen 
leaves  was  one  of  the  events  of  the  year,  and  it  is  not 
strange  that  the  sense  and  nonsense  of  Poor  Richard, 
which  afterward  gained  such  a  place  and  name  in  the 
literary  centers  of  Europe,  should  surpass  its  com- 
petitors, and  keep  the  presses  busy  printing  the  ten 
thousand  copies  annually  called  for.  The  humor  was 
everywhere — in  the  advertisement  that  announced  its 
publication,  in  the  title-page  and  preface,  sprinkled  in 
the  calendar,  the  weather  predictions,  the  eclipses,  and 
the  prophecies.  Here,  for  instance,  is  the  way  he  an- 
nounced the  eclipses  in  the  year  1734: 

"  There  will  be  but  two :  The  first,  April  22,18  min.  after  5 
in  the  morning;  the  second,  October  15,  36  min.  past  i  in  the 

afternoon.     Both  of  the   Sun ;    and  both,  like   Mrs. s's 

modesty,   and   old   neighbour  Scrape-all's    money,   invisible. 

Or  like  a  certain  storekeeper  late  of  county,  not  to  be 

seen  in  these  parts." 

Not  the  least  element  of  the  popularity  was  due  to 
the  controversies  with  his  brother  philomaths,  which 
Franklin  originated  by  his  jocose  remarks  upon  them 
in  the  prefaces  of  Poor  Richard.  With  delightful  humor 
and  satire  Mr.  Saunders  in  different  issues  gravely  pre- 
dicts the  death  of  one  of  his  rivals,  Titan  Leeds,  and 
the  reconciliation  of  a  second,  John  Jerman,  to  the 
Catholic  Church.  Neither  of  these  gentlemen,  though 
able  to  predict  weather  twelve  months  in  advance,  could 

402 


THE  HUMORIST 

draw  from  the  stars  Franklin's  purpose,  and  so  they  fell 
into  his  trap,  and  in  the  prefaces  to  their  respective 
issues  they  replied  to  him  with  anger  and  "strong" 
words.  Leeds  called  him  "  a  Fool  and  a  Lyar  "  and 
"  a  conceited  scribbler,"  which  Jerman  echoed  in  no 
minor  key  by  stating  that  Franklin's  prediction  was 
"  altogether  false  and  untrue,"  and  that  he  was  "  one  of 
Baal's  false  prophets."  This  was  just  what  Franklin 
expected,  and  he  used  his  opportunity  to  the  utmost. 
With  wit  and  humor  he  fanned  the  flame  of  controversy, 
to  which  his  rivals  replied  with  bad  language  and  adjec- 
tives. He  made  every  reader  of  Leeds  and  Jerman 
hear  of  and  wish  to  see  Poor  Richard,  and,  once  seen, 
it  was  a  very  clodpate  who  could  not  discriminate 
between  texts,  one  of  which  has  been  translated  into  a 
dozen  languages,  while  the  other  has  barely  survived 
on  the  shelves  of  the  antiquary. 

What  made  Poor  Richard  a  byword  throughout  the 
colonies,  however,  were  the  scraps  of  wit  and  wisdom 
with  which  Franklin  filled  in  any  little  blanks  in  the 
text.  In  his  autobiography  he  tells  us  that : 

"  Observing  it  was  generally  read,  scarce  any  neighborhood 
in  the  province  being  without  it,  I  consider'd  it  as  a  proper 
vehicle  for  conveying  instruction  among  the  common  people, 
who  bought  scarcely  any  other  books  ;  I  therefore  filled  all  the 
little  spaces  between  the  remarkable  days  in  the  calendar  with 
proverbial  sentences,  chiefly  such  as  inculcated  industry  and 
frugality  as  the  means  of  procuring  wealth,  and  thereby  se- 
curing virtue ;  it  being  more  difficult  for  a  man  in  want  to  act 
always  honestly,  as,  to  use  here  one  of  these  proverbs,  '  if  is 
hard  for  an  empty  sack  to  stand  upright.'  " 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  Franklin  did  not 
originate  all  the  "  Sayings  of  Poor  Richard."  He  him- 

403 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

self  affirmed  that  they  were  "  the  wisdom  of  many  ages 
and  nations,"  and  again  disclaimed  all  originality  by 
remarking  that  "  not  a  tenth  Part  of  this  Wisdom  was 
my  own,  .  .  .  but  rather  the  Gleanings  I  had  made  of 
all  Ages  and  Nations."  Any  one  familiar  with  Bacon, 
Rochefoucauld,  and  Rabelais,  as  well  as  others,  will 
recognize  old  friends  in  some  of  these  sayings,  while  a 
study  of  the  collections  of  proverbs  made  in  the  early 
part  of  the  last  century  by  Ray,  Palmer,  and  others 
will  reveal  the  probable  source  from  which  Poor  Richard 
pilfered.  Yet  many  of  these  maxims  and  aphorisms 
had  been  filtered  through  Franklin's  brain,  and  were 
tinged  with  that  mother-wit  which  strongly  and  indi- 
vidually marks  so  much  that  he  said  and  wrote,  and 
those  of  which  he  was  himself  the  originator  rank  with 
the  best  of  the  world's  philosophy,  as  the  following 
specimens  will  evidence : 

"  Time  eateth  all  things,  could  old  poets  say. 
But  times  are  chang'd,  our  times  drink  all  away." 

"  You  may  drive  a  gift  without  a  gimblet." 

"  Here  comes  Glib-tongue,  who  can  out-flatter  a  Dedication  ; 
and  lie,  like  ten  Epitaphs." 

"  One  man  may  be  more  cunning  than  another,  but  not 
more  cunning  than  every  one  else." 

"  Mankind  are  very  odd  Creatures :  one  half  censure  what 
they  practise,  the  other  half  practises  what  they  censure ;  the 
rest  always  say  and  do  as  they  ought." 

"  A  hundred  Thieves  cannot  strip  one  naked  man  ;  especially 
if  his  Skin  's  off." 

"  Money  &  Man  a  mutual  Friendship  show : 
Man  makes  false  Money,  Money  makes  Man  so." 

404 


THE  HUMORIST 

"  Mary's  mouth  costs  her  nothing,  for  she  never  opens  it  but 
at  others'  expence." 

"  A  Doubtful  Meaning. 

"  The  female  kind  is  counted  ill : 
And  is  indeed  :  the  contrary ; 
No  man  can  find  :  that  hurt  they  will : 
But  every  where  :  shew  charity  : 
To  nobody  ;  malicious  still ; 
In  word  or  deed :  believe  you  me." 

"  He  that  is  of  Opinion  Money  will  do  every  Thing,  may 
well  be  suspected  of  doing  every  Thing  for  Money." 

"  A  rich  rogue  is  like  a  fat  hog, 
Who  never  does  good  till  as  dead  as  a  log." 

"  He  does  not  possess  wealth,  it  possesses  him." 

"  He  that  falls  in  love  with  himself,  will  have  no  rivals." 

"  Women  are  books,  and  men  the  readers  be, 
Who  sometimes  in  those  books  erratas  see ; 
Yet  oft  the  reader  's  raptured  with  each  line, 
Fair  print  and  paper,  fraught  with  sense  divine ; 
Tho'  some,  neglectful,  seldom  care  to  read, 
And  faithful  wives  no  more  than  bibles  heed. 
Are  women  books?  says  Hodge,  then  would  mine  were 
An  Almanack,  to  change  her  every  year." 

"  The  cunning  man  steals  a  horse,  the  wise  man  lets  him  alone." 

"  Onions  can  make  ev'n  heirs  and  widows  weep." 

"  Necessity  has  no  law ;  I  know  some  attorneys  of  the  same." 

For  twenty-five  years  Franklin  compiled  and  printed 
this  Almanac,  and  in  the  last  issue  edited  by  him,  being 
for  the  year  1758,  he  contributed  a  preface  to  which 
almost  the  entire  knowledge  of  Poor  Richard  by  the 
world  is  due.  It  was  in  effect  a  skimming  of  the  cream 
from  the  twenty-four  previous  issues,  being  a  selection 
**  405 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

of  aphorisms,  rhymes,  and  jokes  run  into  a  continuous 
piece,  which  was  described  by  Franklin  as  follows : 
"  These  proverbs  „  .  .  I  assembled  and  form'd  into  a 


U  Mou.         April  hath  xxx  days. 


Kind  Katharine  ro  her  husband  kifs'd  theft  words 
*  Mine  own  fwcet  Will,  how  dearly  I  love  thcc .' 
If  true  (quoth  Will)  the  World  no  fuel,  affords.' 
And  that  its  true  I  durrt  his  warrant  be ; 
For  ne'er  heard  I  of  Woman  good  or  ill. 
But  always  loved  bell,  her  own  f*cet  Will 


Ml  Fools. 

ffet  weather,  or 

*  fee  9  o 


3 
likely* 


4|Da 

5 
6 

7 
.1 

2 

3 
4 
5 


(or  rain. 

Sund.p.Eaftcr 
©  enters  tf 
*  fct  S  50 


15  h.  20  m 


10 


?Sund.  p.Eaftei 
*fcc8zi 
and  rain. 

Beware  of' meat  2\ 
twice  bo- I'd,  &  ** 
tldfoe  rteoaciU       < 
Days  inc.  4  h.  26  5 
iSund.  p^Eafter  6 
SCeor£$¥9<* 
,  Troy  burnt 
4$t.  Mark.Evang 


B'5 

4 
o$ 


, tigb9  245 

wmts,  and,  periapt  10X5 
"5 


>2 

51   l' little  Doerj. 
50  7  New  J/  3  day, 
...      at4morn. 
27  7  >f«s929aft, 
'  ritb  ngmt  it 
24.7 
25 


*\> 

£ 


•IV1 

is  7r» 


?irft  Quarter. 
>fetsi4«mo. 
Rebthnwitbout 
f'iendjbip,friend' 


15 
14 

12 
li 

10 

S 

7  7 

5 

4 


2 

O  7 
ro  $ 


r, power without 
)  fets  4  7  mor. 
9  at  i oat 
night. 

7  will,  will  wit  bo. 
efftff.ffeffwitb 
>rif.  ii  aftern. 
Mt  prof t,&  pro- 
fit without  ver- 
tue,  are  not 
Laft  Quarter. 
•v.ortbafttrto. 
;  i  mor. 

Days  14  hours 
lei  7  34 


SPECIMEN   PAGE  OF  "  POOR   RICHARD'S  ALMANAC. 


connected  discourse  prefix'd  to  the  Almanack  of  1757 
(sic)  as  the  harangue  of  a  wise  old  man  to  the  people 
attending  an  auction.  The  bringing  all  these  scatter'd 
counsels  thus  into  a  focus  enabled  them  to  make  greater 

406 


THE  HUMORIST 

impression.  The  piece,  being  universally  approved, 
was  copied  in  all  the  newspapers  of  the  Continent ;  re- 
printed in  Britain  on  a  broadside,  to  be  stuck  up  in 
houses ;  two  translations  were  made  of  it  in  French, 
and  great  numbers  were  bought  by  the  clergy  and  gen- 
try, to  distribute  gratis  among  their  poor  parishioners 
and  tenants." 

It  is  this  preface  which  has  given  the  name  of  Poor 
Richard  currency  in  alien  races,  and  a  quotable  quality 
to  this  day.  It  has  been  printed  and  reprinted  again 
and  again.  In  every  size,  from  a  "  pot  duodecimo  " 
up  to  "  imperial  folio  " ;  in  thousands  for  the  plow-boy, 
and  in  limited  and  privately  printed  editions  at  the  ex- 
pense of  noblemen;  for  the  "penny-horrible"  hawker, 
and  for  the  bibliomaniac ;  for  the  "  Society  for  Preserv- 
ing Property  against  Republicans  and  Levelers,"  and 
for  the  "  Association  for  Improving  the  Condition  of 
the  Poor  "  ;  and  under  the  titles  of  "  Father  Abraham's 
Speech,"  "The  Way  to  Wealth,"  and  "La  Science  du 
Bonhomme  Richard,"  it  has  proved  itself  one  of  the 
most  popular  American  writings.  Seventy-five  editions 
of  it  have  been  printed  in  English,  fifty-six  in  French, 
eleven  in  German,  and  nine  in  Italian.  It  has  been  trans- 
lated into  Spanish,  Danish,  Swedish,  Welsh,  Polish,  Gaelic, 
Russian,  Bohemian,  Dutch,  Catalan,  Chinese,  modern 
Greek,  and  phonetic  writing.  It  has  been  printed  at 
least  four  hundred  times,  and  is  to-day  as  popular  as  ever. 

Franklin  was  as  much  a  wit  with  tongue  as  he  was 
with  pen,  and  there  are  innumerable  instances  of  his 
ready  replies.  To  a  Philadelphia  neighbor  who  com- 
plained to  him  that  people  would  steal  into  his  yard 

407 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

and  tap  a  keg  of  small  beer  which  he  kept  there,  and 
who  consulted  him  on  a  means  to  prevent  it,  he  replied : 


THE 


WAY  TO  WEALTH, 


0  F 

, 

-An  Old  PENNSYLVANIA 


POOR  RICHARD  IMPROVED. 


LONDON: 

Printed  and  Sold  by  M.  LEWIS,  No.  i.  f»:ftnof(.r. 

row.     1774. 
(    Pile*    id.  or  iod,  per  doz.    J 


FIRST  ENGLISH   EDITION   OF   "  POOR   RICHARD'S  SAYINGS." 

"  Put  a  pipe  of  Madeira  alongside  it."  When  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence  was  being  signed,  and  Harrison 
said  that  the  Congress  must  hang  together  in  its  defense, 
Franklin  jocosely  remarked  :  "  Yes,  we  must  all  hang 

408^ 


THE  HUMORIST 

together,  or  we  shall  all  hang  separately."  In  France, 
when  Lord  Stormont,  the  British  ambassador,  circulated 
the  report  that  a  large  part  of  Washington's  army  had 
surrendered,  and  Franklin  was  asked  if  it  were  true, 
he  replied :  "  No,  sir,  it  is  not  a  truth ;  it  is  only  a 
Stormont,"  and  from  that  time  the  poor  ambassador's 
name  was  used  in  Paris  as  the  equivalent  of  a  lie.  Upon 
the  news  arriving  that  General  Howe  had  captured  Phil- 
adelphia, Franklin  gave  another  turn  to  the  disaster,  and 
cheered  the  American  partizans  by  retorting,  "  No ; 
Philadelphia  has  captured  Howe,"  a  version  not  merely 
witty,  but  which  time  proved  truthful.  In  his  contest 
with  the  Penn  proprietors,  one  evening  at  the  governor's, 
Franklin  relates: 

"  In  gay  conversation  over  our  wine,  after  supper,  he  told 
us,  jokingly,  that  he  much  admir'd  the  idea  of  Sancho  Panza, 
who,  when  it  was  proposed  to  give  him  a  government,  re- 
quested it  might  be  a  government  of  blacks,  as  then,  if  he 
could  not  agree  with  his  people,  he  might  sell  them.  One  of 
his  friends,  who  sat  next  to  me,  says :  '  Franklin,  why  do  you 
continue  to  side  with  these  damn'd  Quakers?  Had  not  you 
better  sell  them?  The  proprietor  would  give  you  a  good 
price.'  '  The  governor '  says  I,  '  has  not  yet  blacked  them 
enough.' " 

As  the  bon  mot  about  Stormont  shows,  Franklin  was 
something  of  a  punster.  When  it  was  suggested  to  him 
that  peerages  and  pensions  would  be  given  to  those 
who  might  bring  about  a  reestablishment  of  the  de- 
pendence of  the  colonies,  he  answered :  "  You  will  give 
us  PENSIONS,  probably  to  be  paid  too  out  of  your  ex- 
pected American  revenue,  and  which  none  of  us  can 
accept  without  deserving,  and  perhaps  obtaining,  a  SUS- 

409 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

pension."  But  the  very  neatest  twist  is  connected  with 
his  right  of  franking  letters.  While  Deputy  Postmaster- 
General  under  the  crown  he  wrote  on  the  back  of  his 
letters,  "  Free.  B.  Franklin  "  ;  but  when  the  Continental 
Congress  appointed  him  to  the  same  office,  he  changed 
the  form,  and  wrote,  "  B.  Free  Franklin."  He  en- 
couraged a  punster,  too,  by  writing  him  that  "  your 
string  of  puns"  made  "us  very  merry";  adding: 
"  You  will  allow  me  to  claim  a  little  merit  or  demerit 
in  the  last,  as  having  had  some  hand  in  making  you  a 
punster;  but  the  wit  of  the  first  is  keen,  and  all  your 
own." 

To  nineteenth-century  palates  some  of  Poor  Richard 
is  coarse  and  vulgar,  but  the  times  rather  than  the 
author  should  bear  the  blame.  So  there  are  other 
humorous  writings  of  his  so  certain  to  shock  modern 
taste  that  they  have  never  been  printed  in  his  collected 
works.  One,  which  by  surreptitious  editions  has  ac- 
quired much  currency,  was  pretendedly  a  letter  of 
advice  to  a  young  man  on  his  conduct  to  women,  but 
was  only  a  bit  of  fooling,  never  seriously  intended.  A 
second  is  a  satire  on  the  silly  conduct  of  some  learned 
societies  in  discussing  trivial  questions.  A  preface  to 
one  of  his  almanacs  is  on  the  whole  the  worst  of  the 
three,  because  printed ;  yet  presumably  it  was  mightily 
enjoyed,  and  scarcely  disapproved  of,  by  those  who 
purchased  it.  His  "  Speech  of  Polly  Baker,"  if  written 
in  the  plainest  of  Anglo-Saxon,  and  if  given  a  humorous 
turn,  is  but  such  a  protest  as  the  noblest  men  and 
women  have  more  seriously,  and  with  more  careful 
choice  of  words,  uttered  against  laws  and  customs  that 

410 


THE  HUMORIST 

pillory   the  fallen   woman    and    leave   unpunished   the 
partner  in  her  sin. 


1  A  SCIENCE 

DU  BONHOMME  RICHARD 


ou 


MOY.EN  FACILE 

'E   PAYE.R  LES    I M  POT'S. 

TRADUIT  DE'L'ANGl.OJS. 


A  PHILADELPHIA. 

Et  fe  trouvc 

A  PAR  IS,  chez  RU  AULT,  Libraire 
rue  de  la  Harpe. 


TITLE-PAGE  OF  FIRST  FRENCH  EDITION  OF 
"  POOR  RICHARD'S  SAYINGS." 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  in  a  certain  way  Franklin 
let  his  sense  of  fun  overcome  what  was  appropriate  and 

411 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

dignified.  Thus,  when  he  was  in  command  on  the  fron- 
tier in  1756 : 

"  We  had  for  our  chaplain  a  zealous  Presbyterian  minister, 
Mr.  Beatty,  who  complained  to  me  that  the  men  did  not 
generally  attend  his  prayers  and  exhortations.  When  they 
enlisted,  they  were  promised,  besides  pay  and  provisions^ 
a  gill  of  rum  a  day,  which  was  punctually  serv'd  out  to 
them,  half  in  the  morning,  and  the  other  half  in  the  even- 
ing;  and  I  observ'd  they  were  as  punctual  in  attending 
to  receive  it ;  upon  which  I  said  to  Mr.  Beatty :  '  It  is,  per- 
haps, below  the  dignity  of  your  profession  to  act  as  steward  of 
the  rum,  but  if  you  were  to  deal  it  out  and  only  just  after 
prayers,  you  would  have  them  all  about  you.'  He  liked  the 
tho't,  undertook  the  office,  and,  with  the  help  of  a  few  hands 
to  measure  out  the  liquor,  executed  it  to  satisfaction,  and 
never  were  prayers  more  generally  and  more  punctually  at- 
tended ;  so  that  I  thought  this  method  preferable  to  the  punish- 
ment inflicted  by  some  military  laws  for  non-attendance  on 
divine  service." 

With  more  justification,  and  probably,  in  this  case, 
with  intentional  burlesquing,  he  wrote  of  the  Society  of 
the  Cincinnati  badge : 

"Others  object  to  the  bald  eagle  as  looking  too  much  like  a 
dindon,  or  turkey.  For  my  own  part,  I  wish  the  bald  eagle 
had  not  been  chosen  as  the  representative  of  our  country ;  he 
is  a  bird  of  bad  moral  character ;  he  does  not  get  his  living 
honestly  ;  you  may  have  seen  him  perched  on  some  dead  tree, 
where,  too  lazy  to  fish  for  himself,  he  watches  the  labor  of 
the  fishing-hawk ;  and,  when  that  diligent  bird  has  at  length 
taken  a  fish,  and  is  bearing  it  to  his  nest  for  the  support  of  his 
mate  and  young  ones,  the  bald  eagle  pursues  him  and  takes  it 
from  him.  With  all  this  injustice  he  is  never  in  good  case ; 
but,  like  those  among  men  who  live  by  sharping  and  robbing, 
he  is  generally  poor,  and  often  very  lousy.  Besides,  he  is  a 
rank  coward ;  the  little  king-bird,  not  bigger  than  a  sparrow, 
attacks  him  boldly  and  drives  him  out  of  the  district.  ...  I 
am,  on  this  account,  not  displeased  that  the  figure  is  not  known 

412 


THE  HUMORIST 

as  a  bald  eagle,  but  looks  more  like  a  turkey.  For  in  truth, 
the  turkey  is  in  comparison  a  much  more  respectable  bird,  and 
withal  a  true  original  native  of  America." 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  his  political  sat- 
ires, all  of  which  had  a  more  or  less  humorous  turn. 
So  he  often  adopted  the  same  vein  in  his  non-political 
articles.  Here,  for  instance,  is  his  method  of  making 
clear  the  misinformation  which  the  British  press  then, 
as  now,  delighted  to  print  concerning  America,  pre- 
tendedly  a  counter-denial  of  a  contradiction. 

"  Dear  Sir,  do  not  let  us  suffer  ourselves  to  be  amused  with 
such  groundless  objections.  The  very  tails  of  the  American 
sheep  are  so  laden  with  wool,  that  each  has  a  little  car  or 
wagon  on  four  little  wheels  to  support  and  keep  it  from  trail- 
ing on  the  ground.  Would  they  caulk  their  ships ;  would  they 
even  litter  their  horses  with  wool,  if  it  were  not  both  plenty 
and  cheap?  .  .  .  And  yet  all  this  is  as  certainly  true  as  the 
account,  said  to  be  from  Quebec,  in  all  the  papers  of  last  week, 
that  the  inhabitants  of  Canada  are  making  preparations  for 
a  cod  and  whale  fishery  this  'summer  in  the  upper  Lakes.' 
Ignorant  people  may  object  that  the  upper  Lakes  are  fresh, 
and  that  cod  and  whales  are  salt  water  fish,  but  let  them  know, 
Sir,  that  cod,  like  other  fish,  when  attacked  by  their  enemies, 
fly  into  any  water  where  they  can  be  safest ;  that  whales,  when 
they  have  a  mind  to  eat  cod,  pursue  them  wherever  they  fly, 
and  that  the  grand  leap  of  the  whale  in  the  chase  up  the  Falls 
of  Niagara  is  esteemed  by  all  who  have  seen  it  as  one  of  the 
finest  spectacles  in  nature." 

As  Franklin  was  a  wit,  so  he  was  a  story-teller. 
"The  Doctor,"  Miss  Adams  noted,  "is  always  silent 
unless  he  has  some  diverting  story  to  tell,  of  which  he 
has  a  great  collection."  "You  know,"  he  himself  re- 
minded a  friend,  "  everything  puts  me  in  mind  of  a 
story."  Some  few  of  these,  selected  at  random,  will 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

serve  to  indicate  how  habitual  it  was  to  him.  Insisting 
on  the  necessity  of  careful  preliminary  work  in  science, 
he  told  a  correspondent  that : 

"This  prudence  of  not  attempting  to  give  reasons  before 
one  is  sure  of  facts,  I  learned  from  one  of  your  sex,  who,  as 
Selden  tells  us,  being  in  company  with  some  gentlemen  that 
were  viewing  and  considering  something  which  they  called  a 
Chinese  shoe,  and  disputing  earnestly  about  the  manner  of 
wearing  it,  and  how  it  could  possibly  be  put  on,  put  in  her 
word,  and  said  modestly,  'Gentlemen,  are  you  sure  it  is  a  shoe  ? 
Should  not  that  be  settled  first  ?  '  " 

Weary  of  a  public  matter  to  which  he  had  given 
much  time,  he  said : 

"  I  begin  to  be  a  little  of  the  sailor's  mind  when  they  were 
handing  a  cable  out  of  a  store  into  a  ship,  and  one  of  'em  said : 
'  'T  is  a  long,  heavy  cable.  I  wish  we  could  see  the  end  of  it.' 
'  D  —  n  me,'  says  another,  'if  I  believe  it  has  any  end;  some- 
body has  cut  it  off.'  " 

In  reply  to  a  letter  of  extravagant  thanks,  he  re- 
marked that  it 

"  Put  me  in  mind  of  the  story  of  the  member  of  Parliament, 
who  began  one  of  his  speeches  with  saying  he  thanked  God 
that  he  was  born  and  bred  a  Presbyterian ;  on  which  another 
took  leave  to  observe,  that  the  gentleman  must  needs  be  of  a 
most  grateful  disposition,  since  he  was  thankful  for  such  very 
small  matters." 

Protesting  against  the  folly  of  dueling,  he  cited  the 
case  of  a  gentleman  in  a  coffee-house  who  desired 
another  to  sit  farther  from  him. 

"'Why  so?'  'Because,  sir,  you  stink.'  'That  is  an 
affront,  and  you  must  fight  me.'  '  I  will  fight  you,  if  you 

414 


THE  HUMORIST 

insist  upon  it ;  but  I  do  not  see  how  that  will  mend  the  matter. 
For  if  you  kill  me,  I  shall  stink  too  ;  and  if  I  kill  you,  you  will 
stink,  if  possible,  worse  than  you  do  at  present.' " 

Describing  his  own  country,  and  the  absence  of  a  lei- 
sure class  because  idleness  was  deemed  disreputable, 
he  declared  that : 

"  The  husbandman  is  in  honor  there,  and  even  the  mechanic, 
because  their  employments  are  useful.  The  people  have  a 
saying,  that  God  Almighty  is  himself  a  mechanic,  the  greatest 
in  the  universe ;  and  he  is  respected  and  admired  more  for  the 
variety,  ingenuity,  and  utility  of  his  handiworks,  than  for  the 
antiquity  of  his  family.  They  are  pleased  with  the  observa- 
tion of  a  negro,  and  frequently  mention  it,  that  Boccarora 
(meaning  that  white  man)  make  de  black  man  workee,  make  de 
horse  workee,  make  de  ox  workee,  make  ebery  ting  workee;  only 
de  hog.  He,  de  hog,  no  workee;  he  eat,  he  drink,  he  walk  about, 
he  go  to  sleep  when  he  please,  he  live  like  a  gempleman" 


A  POCKET 


Forthe  Year  1 742, 


Itted  to  the  Ufe  of^ 

BY  i,TANXA»4nd  tlje  neigh- 
bouring Provinces, 


R.  6AUNDERS, 


PH1LADS  L  P  // JM  .• 
iPrinted    by    B. 


TITLE-PAGE  OF   POCKET-EDITION    OF 
POOR   RICHARD. 

These  innumerable  stories  had  great  currency  in  their 
time,  and  went  from  mouth  to  mouth,  not  always  as 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Franklin  told  them.      Correcting  one  of  these  versions, 
he  capped  one  story  with  another  by  writing : 

"  As  you  observe,  there  was  no  swearing  in  the  story  of  the 
poker,  when  I  told  it.  The  late  new  dresser  of  it  was,  prob- 
ably, the  same,  or  perhaps  akin  to  him,  who,  in  relating  a 
dispute  that  happened  between  Queen  Anne  and  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  concerning  a  vacant  mitre,  which  the 
Queen  was  for  bestowing  on  a  person  the  Archbishop  thought 
unworthy,  made  both  the  Queen  and  the  Archbishop  swear 
three  or  four  thumping  oaths  in  every  sentence  of  the  discus- 
sion, and  the  Archbishop  at  last  gained  his  point.  One  pres- 
ent at  this  tale,  being  surprised,  said :  '  But  did  the  Queen 
and  the  Archbishop  swear  so  at  one  another?  '  '  Oh  no,  no,' 
says  the  relator ;  '  that  is  only  my  way  of  telling  the  story.' " 

He  continued  to  joke  to  the  very  end,  for  when  the 
burden  of  years  and  pain  was  resting  heavily  upon  him, 
he  told  a  friend,  who  dwelt  on  the  need  of  his  country 
for  his  services,  "  our  story  of  the  harrow  "  : 

"  A  farmer,  in  our  country,  sent  two  of  his  servants  to  bor- 
row one  of  a  neighbor,  ordering  them  to  bring  it  between  them 
on  their  shoulders.  When  they  came  to  look  at  it,  one  of 
them,  who  had  much  wit  and  cunning,  said  :  '  What  could  our 
master  mean  by  sending  only  two  men  to  bring  this  harrow? 
No  two  men  upon  earth  are  strong  enough  to  carry  it.' 
'  Poh  ! '  said  the  other,  who  was  vain  of  his  strength,  '  what 
do  you  talk  of  two  men  ?  One  man  can  carry  it.  Help  it  on 
my  shoulders  and  see.'  As  he  proceeded  with  it,  the  wag 
kept  exclaiming,  'Zounds,  how  strong  you  are!  I  could  not 
have  thought  it !  Why,  you  are  a  Samson !  There  is  no  such 
another  man  in  America!  What  amazing  strength  God  has 
given  you!  But  you  will  kill  yourself!  Pray  put  it  down  and 
rest  a  little,  or  let  me  bear  a  part  of  the  weight.'  '  No,  no,' 
said  he,  being  more  encouraged  by  the  compliments  than 
oppressed  by  the  burden ;  '  you  shall  see  I  carry  it  quite 
home."  And  so  he  did.  In  this  particular  I  am  afraid  my 
part  of  the  imitation  will  fall  short  of  the  original." 


THE  HUMORIST 

"  Life,  like  a  dramatic  piece,"  he  once  wrote,  "  should 
not  only  be  conducted  with  regularity,  but,  methinks, 
it  should  finish  handsomely.  Being  now  in  the  last 
act,  I  begin  to  cast  about  for  something  fit  to  end 
with.  Or,  if  mine  be  more  properly  compared  to  an 
epigram,  as  some  of  its  lines  are  but  barely  tolerable,  I 
am  very  desirous  of  concluding  with  a  bright  point." 


FRANKLIN'S  CALLING  CARD. 


4'7 


JOIN,     or    D  I  E. 


SYMBOLICAL  PRINT  BY  FRANKLIN. 

From  the  "  Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  1754,  in  the  Histories 
Society  of  Pennsylvania. 


XI 


POLITICIAN    AND    DIPLOMATIST 

"  r  J^HE  first  mistake  in  public  business  is  the  going 
A  into  it,"  remarked  Poor  Richard,  and  the 
worldly-wise  sage  was  speaking  from  the  "experience" 
which  keeps  a  "  dear  school,"  for  Franklin,  when  he 
penned  the  sentence,  had  been  over  twenty  years  a 
public  servant.  The  admonition,  however,  was  little 
heeded,  for  he  continued  to  hold  office  almost  unceas- 
ingly to  the  end  of  his  days.  "  I  have  heard,"  he  said, 
"  of  some  great  man  whose  rule  it  was,  with  regard  to 
offices,  never  to  ask  for  them,  and  never  to  refuse  them; 
to  which  I  have  always  added,  in  my  own  practice, 

4.8 


POLITICIAN  AND   DIPLOMATIST 

never  to  resign  them,"  On  another  occasion  he  as- 
serted, not  altogether  truthfully  :  "  I  never  solicited 
for  a  public  office,  either  for  myself  or  any  relation,  yet 
I  never  refused  one  that  I  was  capable  of  executing, 
when  public  service  was  in  question ;  and  I  never  bar- 
gained for  salary,  but  contented  myself  with  whatever 
my  constituents  were  pleased  to  allow  me." 

Franklin's  entrance  into  politics  may  be  said  to  date 
from  his  beginning  to  print  the  "Pennsylvania  Gazette," 
for  he  relates:  "  The  leading  men,  seeing  a  newspaper 
now  in  the  hands  of  one  who  could  also  handle  a  pen, 
thought  it  convenient  to  oblige  and  encourage  me," 
and  they  gave  him,  as  already  told,  the  public  printing. 
The  same  year  he  secured  the  favor  of  the  populace 
in  another  way.  "  About  this  time  there  was  a  cry 
among  the  people  for  more  paper  money,"  and  Frank- 
lin, taking  advantage  of  it,  "  wrote  and  printed  an 
anonymous  pamphlet  .  .  .  entitled  '  The  Nature  and 
Necessity  of  a  Paper  Currency,' "  which  "  was  well 
receiv'd  by  the  common  people  in  general ;  but  the 
rich  men  dislik'd  it,  for  it  increas'd  and  strengthen'd 
the  clamor  for  more  money,  and  they  happening  to 
have  no  writers  among  them  that  were  able  to  answer 
it,  their  opposition  slacken'd,  and  the  point  was  carried 
by  a  majority  in  the  House."  In  his  twenty  years' 
active  labor  at  his  press,  the  printer  succeeded  in 
making  it  a  producer  of  wealth ;  but  at  this  time  he 
had  yet  to  learn  the  lesson  that  value  is  made  by  ma- 
terial and  labor,  and  not  by  words  and  promises.  Later 
in  life  his  intercourse  with  Hume,  Price,  Turgot,  Mira- 
beau,  and,  most  of  all,  with  Adam  Smith,  who  sub- 

419 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


mitted  each  chapter  of  his  ''Wealth  of  Nations,"  "  a< 
he  composed  it,"  to  Franklin  for  discussion  and  criti- 
cism, opened  his  eyes  to  the  truths  that  every  papei 


A    M  O  6  E  S •*£• 


THl| 

iand 

OF     A        ? 

•.£R- CUR  RE  NCI". 


-    '  •'    '  '"'•  Quid  a/per 
"He  Nummits  bdbet ;  'patn*9  fyarify,  propmquis  '• 
\uautum  elargifi  dec  eat.      ~ — ^ 


"Printed  and  Sofd  at  the  New  P i  I N T  IN G-: 
OFFICE,  .near  the  Market.    1729. 

£•  r    :  ^a      %B/^-~~ 

rQ    Z^^9+r73&-fl fl    &£$ 

kLff^jT.  f/ 


FRANKLIN'S  "  MODEST  ENQUIRY  INTO  THE  NATURE  AND 
NECESSITY  OF  A  PAPER  CURRENCY." 

Original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

dollar  issued  banishes  or  takes  out  of  circulation  a  meta 
one,  so  long  as  there  is  one  left,  and  that  beyond  that 
however  the  printing-presses  may  be  worked,  there  wil 
be  no  more  money,  the  total  value  of  the  mass  decreas 

42O 


POLITICIAN  AND    DIPLOMATIST 

ing  as  rapidly  as  the  volume  is  swelled,  and  in  excessive 
issues  tending  even  to  fall  so  sharply  as  to  produce  an 
actual  contraction,  not  augmentation,  in  the  standard 
of  value.  "  I  lament  with  you,"  he  told  a  friend,  in 
speaking  of  the  Continental  currency,  "  the  many  mis- 
chiefs, the  injustice,  the  corruption  of  manners,  etc., 
that  attended  a  depreciating  currency.  It  is  some  con- 
solation to  me,  that  I  washed  my  hands  of  that  evil  by 
predicting  it  in  Congress,  and  proposing  means  that 
would  have  been  effectual  to  prevent  it,  if  they  had 
been  adopted.  Subsequent  operations,  that  I  have 
executed,  demonstrate  that  my  plan  was  practicable ; 
but  it  was  unfortunately  rejected." 

However  erroneous  the  economic  views  of  the  young 
printer  might  be,  they  brought  Franklin  into  political 
notice,  and  in  1736  he  was  chosen  clerk  of  the  General 
Assembly  "without  opposition" — a  place  of  value 
aside  from  its  salary,  he  states,  because  it  gave  him  "  a 
better  opportunity  of  keeping  up  an  interest  among  the 
members,  which  secur'd  to  me  the  business  of  printing 
the  votes,  laws,  paper  money,  and  other  occasional 
jobbs  for  the  public,  that,  on  the  whole,  were  very 
profitable."  The  year  following  he  was  reappointecl, 
but  not  unanimously,  "  a  new  member  "  making  "  a 
long  speech  against  "  him.  This  opposition  disturbed 
the  office-holder,  and  he  sought  to  placate  its  origina- 
tor, not  by  "servile  respect,"  but  by  a  very  typical 
artifice  : 

"  Having  heard  that  he  had  in  his  library  a  certain  very 
scarce  and  curious  book,  I  wrote  a  note  to  him,  expressing 
my  desire  of  perusing  that  book,  and  requesting  he  would  do 

27*  42 1 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

me  the  favour  of  lending  it  to  me  for  a  few  days.  He  sent  it 
immediately,  and  I  return'd  it  in  about  a  week  with  another 
note,  expressing  strongly  my  sense  of  the  favour.  When  we 
next  met  in  the  House,  he  spoke  to  me  (which  he  had  never 
done  before),  and  with  great  civility;  and  he  ever  after  mani- 
fested a  readiness  to  serve  me  on  all  occasions,  so  that  we 
became  great  friends,  and  our  friendship  continued  to  his 
death.  This  is  another  instance  of  the  truth  of  an  old  maxim 
I  had  learned,  which  says :  '  He  that  has  once  done  you  a 
kindness  will  be  more  ready  to  do  you  another,  than  he  whom 
you  yourself  have  obliged'  And  it  shows  how  much  more 
profitable  it  is  prudently  to  remove,  than  to  resent,  return, 
and  continue  inimical  proceedings." 

UI  now  began,"  Franklin  relates,  "  to  turn  my 
thoughts  a  little  to  public  affairs,"  and  in  succession  set 
about  methods  for  bettering  the  city  watch,  the  fire  ser- 
vice, and,  somewhat  later,  the  cleaning  and  paving  of 
the  streets.  In  1737,  as  already  told,  he  was  made 
postmaster  of  Philadelphia,  which  brought  him  forward 
yet  more  prominently.  But  most  of  all  it  was  his  pam- 
phlet, "  Plain  Truth,"  which,  though  it  "  bore  some- 
what hard  on  both  parties  .  .  .  had  the  happiness 
not  to  give  much  offence  to  either,"  that  may  be  said 
to  have  made  a  public  man  of  him.  "  The  share  I  had 
in  the  late  Association,  and  so  forth,"  he  wrote,  "  hav- 
ing given  me  a  little  present  run  of  popularity,  there 
was  a  pretty  general  intention  of  choosing  me  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  city  at  the  next  election  of  Assembly- 
men ;  but  I  have  desired  all  my  friends  who  spoke  to 
me  about  it  to  discourage  it,  declaring  that  I  should 
not  serve  if  chosen."  His  wish  to  keep  out  of  office 
was  idle,  however.  The  governor  made  him  a  justice 
of  the  peace.  This  office,  Franklin  says,  "  I  try'd  a 

422 


POLITICIAN  AND   DIPLOMATIST 

little,  by  attending  a  few  courts,  and  sitting  on  the 
bench  to  hear  causes;  but  finding  that  more  knowledge 
of  the  common  law  than  I  possess'd  was  necessary  to 
act  in  that  station  with  credit,  I  gradually  withdrew 
from  it."  The  corporation  of  the  city  elected  him  to 
the  common  council,  and  later  to  the  office  of  alderman, 
an  honor  of  which  his  mother  doubtingly  wrote  :  "  I  am 
glad  to  hear  you  are  so  well  respected  in  your  town  for 
them  to  choose  you  an  Alderman,  altho'  I  don't  know 
what  it  means,  or  what  the  better  you  will  be  of  it  besides 
the  honour  of  it."  Nor  did  his  plea  avail  to  save  him  from 
election  to  the  Assembly,  for  "  the  citizens  at  large  chose 
me  a  burgess  to  represent  them,"  and  "  my  election  to 
this  trust  was  repeated  every  year  for  ten  years,  without 
my  ever  asking  any  elector  for  his  vote,  or  signifying, 
either  directly  or  indirectly,  any  desire  of  being  chosen." 
Despite  his  endeavors  to  escape  the  office,  he  confesses 
that  the  "  station  was  agreeable  to  me,  as  I  was  at 
length  tired  with  sitting  there  to  hear  debates,  in  which, 
as  clerk,  I  could  take  no  part,  and  which  were  often  so 
unentertaining  that  I  was  induc'd  to  amuse  myself  with 
making  magic  squares  or  circles,  or  any  thing  to  avoid 
weariness." 

From  this  election  to  the  Assembly  dates  the  real 
beginning  of  Franklin  as  a  political  influence,  yet  in  a 
very  brief  space  of  time  he  made  himself  one  of  the 
dominant  factors.  Entering  the  arena  on  the  question 
of  public  defense,  he  was  quickly  in  opposition  to  the 
Penn  brothers,  the  proprietors  of  the  colony,  the  moot 
point  being  the  question  of  taxing  the  proprietary 
lands.  The  popular  view  was  that  their  lands  should 

423 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

bear  an  equal  share,  and  Franklin  became  the  leader  of 
the  party  advocating  this,  his  chief  opponents  being  the 
office-holders  and  gentry  ;  and  for  years  the  contest  was 
waged,  with  a  bitterness  and  vituperation  unexampled 
in  colonial  politics,  without  the  aristocratic  party  being 
able  to  defeat  him  or  to  prevent  him  from  carrying  his 
measures.  At  last,  however,  aided  by  some  assistance 
from  him,  they  compassed  their  endeavor.  In  1764 
the  frontiersmen,  chiefly  Scotch- Irish,  believing  that  the 
Quaker  influence  in  the  Assembly  prevented  proper 
measures  being  taken  for  the  defense  of  the  borders 
from  the  hostile  Indians,  deliberately  massacred  a  small 
village,  men,  women,  and  children,  of  peaceful  and 
semi-civilized  Indians  in  the  interior  of  the  colony,  the 
remnants  of  the  tribe  which  had  welcomed  and  made 
the  treaty  with  Penn,  their  only  crime,  as  Franklin  said, 
being  that  ;<they  had  a  reddish-brown  skin  and  black 
hair."  The  brutality  of  the  deed  fired  Franklin,  and 
he  wrote  an  account  of  it,  perhaps  the  most  righteously 
angry  paper  he  ever  penned,  in  which  he  mercilessly 
lashed  and  well-nigh  cursed  "  the  Christian  white  sav- 
ages of  Peckstang  and  Donegal."  This  was  enough  to 
consolidate  the  Presbyterian  party,  not  merely  on  the 
frontier,  but  in  the  city,  against  him,  and  in  the  election 
of  1764  they  united  themselves  with  the  proprietary 
faction.  "  You  can  scarcely  conceive,"  he  told  a  friend, 
"  the  number  of  bitter  enemies  that  little  piece  has 
raised  me  among  the  Irish  Presbyterians."  Another 
publication  of  Franklin's,  too,  served  to  gain  the  coali- 
tion of  yet  a  third  class  of  voters.  Some  years  before, 
in  a  strictly  scientific  pamphlet,  he  had  philosophized 

424 


THOMAS    1'K.N.N. 
H.  Hay  Cameron,  of  portrait  by  Peter  Van  Dyke, 


From  a  photograph  by  H 

in  the  possession  of  the  Earl  of  Ranfurly. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

on  the  question  of  immigration,  and  asked,  "Why 
should  the  Palatine  boors  be  suffered  to  swarm  into  our 
settlements,  and,  by  herding  together,  establish  their 
language  and  manners,  to  the  exclusion  of  ours  ?  Why 
should  Pennsylvania,  founded  by  the  English,  become 
a  colony  of  aliens,  who  will  shortly  be  so  numerous  as 
to  Germanize  us  ?  "  This  was  reprinted  now  to  injure 
him  with  that  people,  and  succeeded  only  too  well. 
Yet,  though  the  Irish  and  German  votes  were  thus 
united  against  him, —  a  combination  almost  unfailingly 
successful  in  America, —  and  though  he  was  pelted  with 
pamphlets,  broadsides,  and  caricatures  impugning  his 
every  public  act  and  laying  bare  his  private  life,  his 
hold  was  so  great  with  the  masses  that  he  would  have 
been  reflected  but  for  an  error  of  judgment  in  the  party 
managers.  A  graphic  account  of  the  struggle  was 
written  by  a  Pennsylvanian  : 

"The  poll  was  opened  about  9  in  the  morning,  the  ist  of 
October,  and  the  steps  so  crowded,  till  between  1 1  and  1 2  at 
night,  that  at  no  time  a  person  could  get  up  in  less  than  a 
quarter  of  an  hour  from  his  entrance  at  the  bottom,  for  they 
could  go  no  faster  than  the  whole  column  moved.  About  3 
in  the  morning,  the  advocates  for  the  new  ticket  moved  for  a 
close,  but  (O!  fatal  mistake!)  the  old  hands  kept  it  open,  as 
they  had  a  reserve  of  the  aged  and  lame,  which  could  not 
come  in  the  crowd,  and  were  called  up  and  brought  out  in 
chairs  and  litters,  &c.,  and  some  who  needed  no  help,  be- 
tween 3  and  6  o'clock,  about  200  voters.  As  both  sides  took 
care  to  have  spies  all  night,  the  alarm  was  given  to  the  new 
ticket  men  ;  horsemen  and  footmen  were  immediately  dis- 
patched to  Germantown,  £c.,  and  by  9  or  10  o'clock  they 
began  to  pour  in,  so  that  after  the  move  for  a  close,  7 
or  800  votes  were  procured ;  about  500  or  near  it  of 
which  were  for  the  new  ticket,  and  they  did  not  close  till 

426 


POLITICIAN  AND   DIPLOMATIST 

3  in  the  afternoon,  and  it  took  them  till  i  next  day  to  count 
them  off." 

The  incident  is  one  of  peculiar  interest,  because  it  is 
the  only  time  Franklin  ever  failed  of  an  election,  and, 
indeed,  his  political  success  was  so  uniform  that  a 
Quaker  demanded  of  a  mutual  acquaintance,  "  Friend 
Joseph,  didst  thee  ever  know  Dr.  Franklin  to  be  in  a 
minority  ?  "  Yet,  though  defeat  is  hardest  to  the  most 
successful,  he  seems  to  have  taken  it  well  "  Mr. 
Franklin,"  continued  the  above  narrator,  "died  like  a 
philosopher";  and  writing  of  his  opposition  to  the 
Paxton  rioters,  and  of  the  resulting  political  effect,  the 
defeated  assemblyman  said :  "  I  had,  by  this  transac- 
tion, made  myself  many  enemies  among  the  populace ; 
and  the  governor  (with  whose  family  our  public  dis- 
putes had  long  placed  me  in  an  unfriendly  light,  and 
the  services  I  had  lately  rendered  him  not  being  of  the 
kind  that  make  a  man  acceptable),  thinking  it  a  favor- 
able opportunity,  joined  the  whole  weight  of  the  pro- 
prietary interest  to  get  me  out  of  the  Assembly;  which 
was  accordingly  effected  at  the  last  election,  by  a  ma- 
jority of  about  twenty-five  in  four  thousand  voters." 

The  triumph  to  the  proprietary  party  was  more  ap- 
parent than  real:  though  they  had  succeeded  in  defeat- 
ing Franklin,  they  had  not  been  able  to  beat  his  party, 
for  "  the  other  Counties  returned  nearly  the  same 
members  who  had  served  them  before,  so  that  the  old 
faction  "  had  u  still  a  considerable  majority  in  the 
House."  The  Assembly,  therefore,  when  met,  chose 
Franklin  its  agent  to  go  to  Great  Britain  with  a  petition 

427 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

to  the  king  that  he  end  the  proprietary  government ; 
so  all  his  opponents  had  accomplished  was  to  place  him 
in  a  position  to  do  them  infinitely  more  injury  than  would 
have  been  possible  had  he  been  reflected  to  the  Assembly. 


CARICATURE   PRINT  OF  FRANKLIN  AND   PAXTON,    RIOTERS. 

Once  already  Franklin  had  been  appointed  agent  of 
the  colony  for  a  similar  service,  and  the  importance  of 
these  two  visits  to  Great  Britain  is  scarcely  to  be  magni- 
fied. It  was  not  that  he  was  able  to  accomplish  all  he 
endeavored  for  his  colony,  though  in  the  first  mission 
he  had  been  fairly  successful,  but  that  they  brought  him 
into  relations  with  many  of  the  leading  men  in  England, 

428 


POLITICIAN  AND   DIPLOMATIST 

immeasurably  broadened  his  horizon,  and  trained  him 
in  diplomacy.  When  in  1776  Congress  sent  him  across 
the  water  to  enter  into  relations  with  France,  it  was 
not  a  raw,  untrained  negotiator  who  went,  but  one 
schooled  by  fourteen  years  of  the  most  difficult  kind  of 
diplomatic  service ;  for  colony  agents,  unlike  foreign 
ministers,  were  compelled  to  plead  their  causes  and 
compass  their  ends  without  the  argument  of  the  armies 
and  fleets  which  are  so  influential  a  factor  in  interna- 
tional disputes.  Yet  so  successfully  did  he  perform 
this  difficult  task  that  Pennsylvania  rechose  him  year 
after  year,  and  in  succession  Massachusetts,  New  Jersey, 
and  Georgia  voted  him  their  agent,  so  that  in  time  he 
came  to  be  the  representative  of  four  of  the  colonies. 

Warmly  attached  as  Franklin  was  to  Pennsylvania, 
he  seems  never  to  have  been  swayed  by  local  interests, 
as  was  so  common  in  his  time.  As  early  as  1751  he 
foresaw  that  a  union  of  the  colonies  was  necessary,  and 
was  thinking  out  methods  for  overcoming  provincial 
prejudices  and  antipathies,  while  marveling  that  the 
"  Six  Nations  of  ignorant  savages  should  be  capable  of 
forming  a  scheme  for  such  an  union  and  be  able  to 
execute  it  in  such  a  manner,  as  that  it  has  subsisted  ages, 
and  appears  indissoluble ;  and  yet  that  a  like  union 
should  be  impracticable  for  ten  or  a  dozen  EnglisJi 
colonies,  to  whom  it  is  more  necessary  and  must  be 
more  advantageous,  and  who  cannot  be  supposed  to 
want  an  equal  understanding  of  their  interests."  WThen 
news  came,  early  in  1754,  that  the  French  had  driven 
the  English  from  the  forks  of  the  Monongahela,  he  wrote 
an  editorial  comment,  in  which  he  warned  the  people 

429 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

that  the  enemy  would  never  have  dared  to  commit  the 
aggression  but  for  the  "  present  disunited  state  of  the 


I  What  is  Sauce  tor  a  Goofe  is  alfo  Sauce  for  a  Gander 

BEING 
A  fmall  Touch  in  the  LA  p  r  D  A  R  Y  \Va.y, 

O  R 
TIT   for  TAT,  in  your  own  Way, 


!AN  EPITAPH 

On  a  certain  great  Man. 
Written  by  A  departed  Spirit  and  now 

[Molt  humbly  infcrib'd  to  ail  his  dutiful  Sons  and  Children 
I  Who  may  hereafter  chofc  to  diRinguilh  him  by  the  Name  of 

I  A    PATRIOT. 


(Dear  CHILDREN, 


I  fend  y»u  here  a  little  Boor, 
For  you  to  look  upon, 
That  you  may  fee  ycmr  Pafpfs 
When  he  is  deail  aui  gene. 


Tin  baft  tnug&t  *t  tefixei  Evil  of  Dignifo:. 


,  printedia  the  Year   1764. 


A  POLITICAL  SQUIB  AGAINST   FRANKLIN. 
Original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

British  Colonies,  and  the  extreme  Difficulty  of  bringing 
so  many  different  Governments  and  Assemblies  to  agree 
to  any  speedy  and  effectual  Measures  for  our  common 

43° 


POLITICIAN    AND   DIPLOMATIST 

Defence  and  Security ;  while  our  Enemies  have  the 
very  great  Advantage  of  being  under  one  Direction, 
with  one  Council,  and  one  Purse."  Then  he  added  a 
cut  symbolizing  the  condition,  which  attained  such  in- 
stant popularity  that  it  was  frequently  reprinted,  and 
which  again  was  used  with  telling  effect  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  Revolution,  and  when  the  Federal  Constitution 
was  under  discussion. 

Only  a  few  days  after  this  warning,  Franklin  went  to 
work  to  put  his  idea  into  concrete  form.  He  had  been 
named  one  of  the  commissioners  to  negotiate  a  war 
alliance  with  the  Six  Nations,  and  "  on  his  way  to  the 
meeting,"  so  he  states, 

"  I  projected  and  drew  a  plan  for  the  union  of  all  the  col- 
onies under  one  government,  so  far  as  might  be  necessary  for 
defense,  and  other  important  general  purposes  ...  By  this 
plan  the  general  government  was  to  be  administered  by  a 
president-general,  appointed  and  supported  by  the  crown, 
and  a  grand  council  was  to  be  chosen  by  the  representatives 
of  the  people  of  the  several  colonies,  met  in  their  respective 
assemblies  .  .  .  Many  objections  and  difficulties  were  started, 
but  at  length  they  were  all  overcome,  and  the  plan  was  unani- 
mously agreed  to,  and  copies  ordered  to  be  transmitted  to  the 
Board  of  Trade  and  to  the  assemblies  of  the  several  provinces. 
Its  fate  was  singular :  the  assemblies  did  not  adopt  it,  as  they 
all  thought  there  was  too  much  prerogative  in  it,  and  in  Eng- 
land it  was  judg'd  to  have  too  much  of  the  democratic.  .  .  . 
The  different  and  contrary  reasons  of  dislike  to  my  plan 
make  me  suspect  that  it  was  really  the  true  medium ;  and  I 
am  still  of  opinion  it  would  have  been  happy  for  both  sides 
the  water  if  it  had  been  adopted.  The  colonies,  so  united, 
would  have  been  sufficiently  strong  to  have  defended  them- 
selves ;  there  would  then  have  been  no  need  of  troops  from 
England;  of  course,  the  subsequent  pretence  for  taxing 
America,  and  the  bloody  contest  it  occasioned,  would  have 

431 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

been   avoided.     But  such  mistakes   are  not  new :  history  is 
full  of  errors  of  states  and  princes." 

Franklin  was  too  inherently  the  statesman  not  to 
look  further  than  the  mere  union  of  the  American  col- 
onies, and  almost  from  his  entrance  into  public  affairs 
he  was  considering  the  relation  between  the  colonies 
and  the  mother-country,  and  striving  to  find  means  to 
maintain  it.  Years  before  ill  feeling  had  been  developed, 
he  declared  :  "  I  have  long  been  of  opinion,  that  the 
foundations  of  the  future  grandeur  and  stability  of  the 
British  Empire  lie  in  America;  and  though,  like  other 
foundations,  they  are  low  and  little  now,  they  are, 
nevertheless,  broad  and  strong  enough  to  support  the 
greatest  political  structure  that  human  wisdom  ever  yet 
erected."  "  With  the  increase  of  the  colonies,"  he  pre- 
dicted, "  a  vast  demand  is  growing  for  British  manu- 
factures, a  glorious  market  wholly  in  the  power  of 
Britain,  in  which  foreigners  cannot  interfere,  which  will 
increase  in  a  short  time  even  beyond  her  power  of  sup- 
plying, though  her  whole  trade  should  be  to  her  colo- 
nies ;  therefore,  Britain  should  not  too  much  restrain 
manufactures  in  her  colonies.  A  wise  and  good  mother 
will  not  do  it.  To  distress  is  to  weaken,  and  weakening 
the  children  weakens  the  whole  family."  And  with 
true  prescience  he  wrote  : 

"It  has  long  appeared  to  me  that  the  only  true  British 
policy  was  that  which  aimed  at  the  good  of  the  whole  British 
empire,  not  that  which  sought  the  advantage  of  one  part 'in  the 
disadvantage  of  the  others ;  therefore  all  measures  of  procur- 
ing gain  to  the  mother  country  arising  from  loss  to  her  colo- 
nies, and  all  of  gain  to  the  colonies  arising  from  or  occasion- 

432 


POLITICIAN    AND   DIPLOMATIST 

ing  loss  to  Britain,  especially  where  the  gain  was  small  and 
the  loss  great,,  every  abridgment  of  the  power  of  the  mother 
country,  where  that  power  was  not  prejudicial  to  the  liberties 
of  the  colonists,  and  every  diminution  of  the  privileges  of  the 
colonists,  where  they  were  not  prejudicial  to  the  welfare  of 
the  mother  country,  I,  in  my  own  mind,  condemned  as  im- 
proper, partial,  unjust,  and  mischievous,  tending  to  create  dis- 
sensions, and  weaken  that  union  on  which  the  strength, 
solidity,  and  duration  of  the  empire  greatly  depended." 

As  this  implied,  Franklin  was  a  warm  partizan  of 
the  connection  between  Great  Britain  and  her  colonies. 
Even  after  the  Stamp  and  Revenue  acts  should  have 
shown  him  how  selfishly  bent  on  her  own  narrow  in- 
terest the  mother-country  was,  he  ascribed  those  mea- 
sures solely  to  a  corrupt  Parliament,  and  expressed  the 
hope  that  "  nothing  that  has  happened,  or  may  happen, 
will  diminish  in  the  least  our  loyalty  to  our  Sovereign, 
or  affection  for  this  nation  in  general.  I  can  scarcely 
conceive  a  King  of  better  dispositions,  of  more  exem- 
plary virtues,  or  more  truly  desirous  of  promoting  the 
welfare  of  all  his  subjects.  The  experience  we  have 
had  of  the  family  in  the  two  preceding  mild  reigns,  and 
the  good  temper  of  our  young  princes,  so  far  as  can 
yet  be  discovered,  promise  us  a  continuance  of  this 
felicity."  As  for  the  colonies,  he  said  :  "  They  had  not 
only  a  respect,  but  an  affection  for  Great  Britain  ,  for 
its  laws,  its  customs  and  manners,  and  even  a  fondness 
for  its  fashions,  that  greatly  increased  the  commerce. 
Natives  of  Britain  were  always  treated  with  particular 
regard  To  be  an  Old- England  man  was,  of  itself,  a 
character  of  some  respect,  and  gave  a  kind  of  rank 
among  us.'*  Thus  he  wrote  when  America  was  ablaze 

433 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

with  opposition  to  the  parliamentary  acts,  but  still  he 
could  assert : 

"  And  yet  there  remains  among  the  people  so  much  respect, 
veneration,  and  affection  for  Britain,  that,  if  cultivated  pru- 
dently, with  a  kind  usage  and  tenderness  for  their  privileges, 
they  might  be  easily  governed  still  for  ages,  without  force  or 
any  considerable  expense.  But  I  do  not  see  here  a  sufficient 
quantity  of  the  wisdom  that  is  necessary  to  produce  such  a 
conduct,  and  I  lament  the  want  of  it." 

In  answer  to  the  charge  that  the  colonies  desired  inde- 
pendence, he  replied  :  "  The  Americans  have  too  much 
love  for  their  mother  country,"  and  he  assured  Lord 
Chatham  "  that,  having  more  than  once  travelled  al- 
most from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the  other,  and 
kept  a  great  variety  of  company,  eating,  drinking,  and 
conversing  with  them  freely,  I  never  had  heard  in  any 
conversation  from  any  person,  drunk  or  sober,  the  least 
expression  of  a  wish  for  a  separation,  or  hint  that  such 
a  thing  would  be  advantageous  to  America." 

Feeling  this  strong  loyalty  himself,  Franklin  worked 
unendingly  to  prevent  the  breach.  Convinced  as  he 
was  that  "  the  government  cannot  long  be  maintained 
without  the  union"  of  the  two,  he  retorted,  when  it 
was  urged  that  in  time  the  colonies  by  their  growth 
would  become  the  dominant  half:  "  Which  is  best, 
(supposing  your  case)  —  to  have  a  total  separation,  or 
a  change  of  the  seat  of  government  ?  "  Early  and  late 
he  preached  the  necessity  of  a  closer  union,  but  it  fell 
on  ears  deafened  by  self  and  immediate  interests,  and 
he  was  forced  to  acknowledge  that  all  his  arguments 
were  in  vain,  for 

434 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"The  Parliament  here  do  at  present  think  too  highly  of 
themselves  to  admit  representatives  from  us,  if  we  should  ask 
it ;  and,  when  they  will  be  desirous  of  granting  it,  we  shall 
think  too  highly  of  ourselves  to  accept  it.  It  would  cer- 
tainly contribute  to  the  strength  of  the  whole,  if  Ireland  and 
all  the  dominions  were  united  and  consolidated  under  one 
common  council  for  general  purposes,  each  retaining  its  par- 
ticular council  or  parliament  for  its  domestic  concerns.  But 
this  should  have  been  early  provided  for.  In  the  infancy 
of  our  foreign  establishments  it  was  neglected,  or  was  not 
thought  of.  And  now  the  affair  is  nearly  in  the  situation  of 
Friar  Bacon's  project  of  making  a  brazen  wall  round  Eng- 
land for  its  eternal  security.  His  servant,  Friar  Bungey, 
slept  while  the  brazen  head,  which  was  to  dictate  how  it 
might  be  done,  said,  Time  is,  and  Time  was.  He  only 
waked  to  hear  it  say,  Time  is  past.  An  explosion  followed, 
that  tumbled  their  house  about  the  conjurer's  ears." 

"  If  such  an  union,"  he  argued,  "were  now  established 
(which  methinks  it  highly  imports  this  country  to 
establish)  it  would  probably  subsist  as  long  as  Britain 
shall  continue  a  nation.  This  people,  however,  is  too 
proud,  and  too  much  despises  the  Americans,  to  bear 
the  thought  of  admitting  them  to  such  an  equitable 
participation  in  the  government  of  the  whole."  "  Every 
man  in  England,"  he  complained,  "  seems  to  consider 
himself  as  a  piece  of  a  sovereign  over  America  ;  seems  to 
jostle  himself  into  the  throne  with  the  King,  and  talks 
of  our  stibjects  in  the  colonies"  and  with  real  indignation 
he  charged  that  "  angry  writers  use  their  utmost  efforts 
to  persuade  us  that  this  war  with  the  colonies  (for  a 
war  it  will  be)  is  a  national  cause,  when  in  fact  it  is  a 
ministerial  one."  The  British,  he  maintained,  "have 
no  idea  that  any  people  can  act  from  any  other  princi- 
ple but  that  of  interest ;  and  they  believe  that  three 

436 


POLITICIAN  AND   DIPLOMATIST 

pence  in  a  pound  of  tea,  of  which  one  does  perhaps 
drink  ten  pounds  in  a  year,  is  sufficient  to  overcome  all 
the  patriotism  of  an  American." 

In  noting,  however,  that  "  the  English  feel  but  they 
do  not  see  ;  that  is,  they  are  sensible  of  inconveniences 
when  they  are  present,  but  do  not  take  sufficient  care 
to  prevent  them,"  he  was  too  inherently  fair-minded 
not  to  acknowledge  the  faults  of  the  colonies  as  well, 
and  especially  of  those  politicians  who  were  striving  to 
foment  divisions.  "  I  think  the  New  Yorkers  have 
been  very  discreet  in  forbearing  to  write  and  publish 
against  the  late  act  of  Parliament,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend 
in  America.  "  I  wish  the  Boston  people  had  been  as 
quiet,  since  Governor  Bernard  has  sent  over  all  their 
violent  papers  to  the  ministry,  and  wrote  them  word 
that  he  daily  expected  a  rebellion."  When  the  mob  in 
Boston  destroyed  the  tea,  he  grieved  over  a  lawlessness 
which  had  "  united  all  parties  in  England  against  the 
American  cause  "  ;  and  though  he  was  the  agent  for 
Massachusetts,  he  risked  his  position  by  honestly  tell- 
ing the  leaders  in  that  province  that  "  I  cannot  but 
hope  that  the  affair  of  the  tea  will  have  been  considered 
in  the  Assembly  before  this  time,  and  satisfaction  pro- 
posed if  not  made ;  for  such  a  step  will  remove  much 
of  the  prejudice  now  entertained  against  us,  and  put  us 
again  on  a  fair  footing  in  contending  for  our  old  privi- 
leges as  occasion  may  require."  When  his  advice  was 
disregarded  he  complained:  "And  so  we  shall  go  on  in- 
juring and  provoking  each  other  instead  of  cultivating 
that  good- will  and  harmony  so  necessary  to  the  general 
welfare." 

437 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Again  and  again  he  begged  the  extremists  in  Massa- 
chusetts not  to  excite  the  people,  for  all  the  ends  de- 
sired could  be  gained  by  peaceful  methods  far  more 
certainly  than  by  law-breaking  and  violence.  "  In  the 
meantime  I  must  hope  that  great  care  will  be  taken  to 
keep  our  people  quiet,"  he  advised,  "  since  nothing  is 
more  wished  for  by  our  enemies  than,  by  insurrections, 
we  should  give  a  good  pretence  for  increasing  the  mili- 
tary among  us,  and  putting  us  under  more  severe  re- 
straints." His  fear,  he  declared,  was 

"  That  imprudencies  on  both  sides  may,  step  by  step,  bring 
on  the  most  mischievous  consequences.  It  is  imagined  here, 
that  this  act  will  enforce  immediate  compliance ;  and,  if  the 
people  should  be  quiet,  content  themselves  with  the  laws  they 
have,  and  let  the  matter  rest,  till  in  some  future  war  the  King, 
wanting  aids  from  them,  and  finding  himself  restrained  in  his 
legislation  by  the  act  as  much  as  the  people,  shall  think  fit  by 
his  ministers  to  propose  the  repeal,  the  Parliament  will  be 
greatly  disappointed ;  arid  perhaps  it  may  take  this  turn.  I 
wish  nothing  worse  may  happen." 

If  but  the  people  could  be  kept  quiet  for  a  time, 
Franklin  held,  the  outcome  could  not  be  doubtful.  "  It 
must  be  evident,"  he  affirmed,  "  that  by  our  rapidly  in- 
creasing strength,  we  shall  soon  become  of  so  much 
importance  that  none  of  our  just  claims  of  privilege 
will  be,  as  heretofore,  unattended  to,  nor  any  security 
we  can  wish  for  our  rights  be  denied  us."  So  he  coun- 
seled even  a  submission  to  the  parliamentary  encroach- 
ments, certain  that  their  period  must  be  brief. 

"  The  colonies  are  rapidly  increasing  in  wealth  and  num- 
bers," he  pointed  out.  "  In  the  last  war  they  maintained  an 

438 


ALEXAXDKR  WEDDERBURX,    LORD   LOUGHHOROUGH,   FIRST  EARL  OF   ROSSLYN. 
From  the  original  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  by  William  Owen,  R.A. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

army  of  twenty-five  thousand.  A  country  able  to  do  that  is 
no  contemptible  ally.  In  another  war  they  may  perhaps  do 
twice  as  much  with  equal  ease.  Whenever  a  war  happens 
our  aid  will  be  wished  for,  our  friendship  desired  and  culti- 
vated, our  good-will  courted.  Then  is  the  time  to  say,  'Rc- 
dress  our  grievances.  You  take  money  from  us  by  force,  and 
now  you  ask  it  of  voluntary  grant.  You  cannot  have  it  both 
ways.  If  you  choose  to  have  it  without  our  consent,  you 
must  go  on  taking  it  in  that  way,  and  be  content  with  what 
little  you  can  so  obtain.  If  you  would  have  our  free  gifts, 
desist  from  your  compulsive  methods,  and  acknowledge  our 
rights,  and  secure  our  future  enjoyment  of  them.'  Our 
claims  will  then  be  attended  to,  and  our  complaints  regarded." 

However  much  he  might  counsel  moderate  opposi- 
tion and  even  temporary  submission,  he  did  so  because 
he  believed  it  the  most  certain  way  of  obtaining  justice 
from  Great  Britain,  and  not  because  he  thought  her 
conduct  either  prudent  or  justifiable.  Long  before  the 
attempt  to  tax  the  colonies,  and,  so  far  as  known,  be- 
fore any  other  American  had  protested  against  such  a 
course,  he  claimed  that  "  It  is  supposed  to  be  an  un- 
doubted right  of  Englishmen  not  to  be  taxed  but  by 
their  own  consent  given  through  their  representatives." 

His  opposition  to  parliamentary  taxation  began  with 
the  earliest  attempt.  To  a  friend  he  wrote  :  "  Depend 
upon  it,  my  good  neighbour,  I  took  every  step  in  my 
power  to  prevent  the  passing  of  the  Stamp  Act.  No- 
body could  be  more  concerned  and  interested  than 
myself,  to  oppose  it  sincerely  and  heartily.  But  the 
tide  was  too  strong  against  us.  The  nation  was  pro- 
voked by  American  claims  of  independence,  and  all 
parties  joined  in  resolving  by  this  act  to  settle  the 
point.  We  might  as  well  have  hindered  the  sun's  set- 

440 


POLITICIAN    AND   DIPLOMATIST 

ting.  That  we  could  not  do.  But  since  it  is  down,  my 
friend,  and  it  may  be  long  before  it  rises  again,  let  us 
make  as  good  a  night  of  it  as  we  can."  When,  con- 
trary to  his  expectation,  the  colonies  refused  to  allow 
the  act  to  be  enforced,  and  a  movement  to  repeal  the 
act  began,  he  told  another :  "  You  guessed  aright  in 
supposing  that  I  would  not  be  a  mute  in  that  play.  I 
was  extremely  busy,  attending  members  of  both  Houses, 
informing,  explaining,  consulting,  disputing,  in  a  con- 
tinual hurry  from  morning  till  night,  till  the  affair  was 
happily  ended.  During  the  course  of  it,  being  called 
before  the  House  of  Commons,  I  spoke  my  mind  pretty 
freely.  Enclosed  I  send  you  the  imperfect  account 
that  was  taken  of  that  examination." 

How  strongly  he  felt  the  rights  of  his  native  land 
was  shown  by  something  else  he  wrote  at  this  time, 
in  which  he  asserted  that : 

"  I  can  only  judge  of  others  by  myself.  I  have  some  little 
property  in  America.  I  will  freely  spend  nineteen  shillings  in 
the  pound  to  defend  the  right  of  giving  or  refusing  the  other 
shilling,  and,  after  all,  if  I  cannot  defend  that  right,  I  can  re- 
tire cheerfully  with  my  little  family  into  the  boundless  woods 
of  America,  which  are  sure  to  afford  freedom  and  subsistence 
to  any  man  who  can  bait  a  hook  or  pull  a  trigger." 

While  other  pleaders  of  the  American  cause  were 
striving  to  explain  previous  acquiescences  in  parliamen- 
tary legislation,  he  saw  the  futility  of  such  attempts, 
and  took  up  the  one  consistent  position  :  "  The  more  I 
have  thought  and  read  on  the  subject,  the  more  I  find 
myself  confirmed  in  opinion  that  no  middle  doctrine 
can  be  well  maintained,  I  mean  not  clearly  with  intelli- 

441 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

gible  arguments.  Something  might  be  made  of  either 
of  the  extremes ;  that  Parliament  has  a  power  to  make 
all  laws  for  us,  or  that  it  has  a  power  to  make  no  laws 
for  us ;  and  I  think  the  arguments  for  the  latter  more 
numerous  and  weighty  than  those  for  the  former." 
This  doctrine  was  so  in  advance  of  what  even  the  most 
extreme  partizans  of  American  rights  thought  of  assert- 
ing that  Franklin  never  advocated  it  publicly.  On  the 
contrary,  he  was  prepared  to  accept  any  compromise 
which  would  satisfy  the  two  countries,  his  purpose 
being  to  bring  about  a  return  of  good  feeling. 

Undoubtedly  this  desire  to  keep  a  middle  ground  was 
partly  induced  by  his  dual  office-holding,  for  in  these 
years  in  which  he  labored  so  unceasingly  to  prevent 
separation  he  held  the  royal  office  of  joint  Deputy  Post- 
master-General from  the  crown,  and  several  agencies 
from  the  colonies,  and  Franklin  loved  public  office  too 
well  to  wish  to  risk  the  loss  of  either.  So  strong,  in 
fact,  was  the  itch  that,  upon  it  being  hinted  to  him 
that  he  might  be  given  a  better  crown  position  than 
that  he  held,  he  did  everything  in  his  power  to  gain 
the  favor  of  those  in  office.  A  vague  message  from 
the  Duke  of  Grafton  suggesting  this  as  a  possibility 
was  sufficient  to  make  Franklin  assure  the  go-between, 
to  use  his  own  words: 

"  I  was  extremely  sensible  of  the  Duke's  goodness  .  .  . 
and  very  thankful  for  his  favorable  disposition  towards  me ; 
that,  having  lived  long  in  England,  and  contracted  a  friend- 
ship and  affection  for  many  persons  here,  it  could  not  but  be 
agreeable  to  me  to  remain  among  them  some  time  longer,  if 
not  for  the  rest  of  my  life ;  and  that  there  was  no  nobleman 

442 


POLITICIAN  AND   DIPLOMATIST 

to  whom  I  could,  from  sincere  respect  for  his  great  abilities 
and  amiable  qualities,  so  cordially  attach  myself,  or  to  whom 
I  should  so  willingly  be  obliged  for  the  provision  he  men- 
tioned, as  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  if  his  Grace  should  think 
I  could,  in  any  station  where  he  might  place  me,  be  service- 
able to  him  and  to  the  public." 

As  if  this  was  not  a  sufficient  forgetting  of  his  own 
aphorism  that  "  a  ploughman  on  his  legs  is  higher  than 
a  gentleman  on  his  knees,"  for  some  weeks  he  left  no 
stone  unturned  to  cultivate  the  ministry.  Acting  on 
advice,  "  I  accordingly  called  at  the  Duke's  and  left  my 
card  ;  and  when  I  went  next  to  the  treasury,  his  Grace 
not  being  there,  Mr.  Cooper  carried  me  to  Lord  North, 
chancellor  of  the  exchequer,  who  said  very  obligingly, 
after  talking  of  some  American  affairs,  '  I  am  told  by 
Mr.  Cooper  that  you  are  not  unwilling  to  stay  with  us. 
I  hope  we  shall  find  some  way  of  making  it  worth  your 
while.'  I  thanked  his  Lordship,  and  said  I  should  stay 
with  pleasure,  if  I  could  any  ways  be  useful  to  govern- 
ment. He  made  me  a  compliment  and  I  took  my 
leave  .  .  .  The  Thursday  following  ...  I  received 
another  note  from  Mr.  Cooper,  directing  me  to  be  at 
the  Duke  of  Grafton's  next  morning,  whose  porter  had 
orders  to  let  me  in.  I  went  accordingly,  and  was  im- 
mediately admitted.  But  his  Grace  being  then  engaged 
in  some  unexpected  business,  with  much  condescension 
and  politeness  made  that  an  apology  for  his  not  discours- 
ing with  me  then,  but  wished  me  to  be  at  the  treasury 
at  twelve  the  next  Tuesday.  I  went  accordingly,  when 
Mr.  Cooper  told  me  something  had  called  the  Duke 
into  the  country,  and  the  board  was  put  off,  which  was 

443 


EARL  OF  CHATHAM.      (PAIXTKD   HV    RICHARD   BROMPTON.) 
In  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 


POLITICIAN  AND    DIPLOMATIST 

not  known  till  it  was  too  late  to  send  me  word  ;  but  he 
was  glad  I  was  come,  as  he  might  then  fix  another  day 
for  me  to  go  again  with  him  into  the  country.  .  .  .  He 
assures  me  the  Duke  has  it  at  heart  to  do  something 
for  me."  All  the  office-seeker's  complaisance,  however, 
proved  but  a  waste  of  time.  "  Instead  of  my  being 
appointed  to  a  new  office,"  he  had  to  tell  his  son,  "  there 
has  been  a  motion  made  to  deprive  me  of  that  I  now 
hold,  and,  I  believe,  for  the  same  reason,  though  that 
was  not  the  reason  given  out,  viz.,  my  being  too  much 
of  an  American."  Once  assured  that  he  was  to  receive 
no  new  appointment,  there  was  an  amusing  change  in 
his  attitude. 

"  I  am  now  grown  too  old  to  be  ambitious  of  such  a  station 
as  that  which  you  say  has  been  mentioned,"  he  wrote.  "  Re- 
pose is  more  fit  for  me,  and  much  more  suitable  to  my  wishes. 
There  is  no  danger  of  such  a  thing  being  offered  to  me,  and  I 
am  sure  I  shall  never  ask  it.  But  even  if  it  were  offered,  I 
certainly  could  not  accept  it,  to  act  under  such  instructions 
as  I  know  must  be  given  with  it." 

Whether  love  of  country  or  love  of  office  was  the 
governing  motive  for  his  endeavors  to  maintain  or  re- 
store concord,  he  narrowly  escaped  the  usual  fate  of 
the  go-between.  Because  he  counseled  acquiescence 
in  the  Stamp  Act,  and  had  a  friend  nominated  to  a 
stamp  commissionership,  he  was  deemed  in  America  to 
be  little  better  than  a  traitor,  and  popular  anger  against 
him  was  so  fanned  by  his  political  opponents  that  there 
was  danger  for  a  time  of  a  mob  taking  vengeance  on 
his  family  and  property.  Fortunately  for  Franklin,  he 
was  summoned  before  Parliament  and  questioned,  at 

44? 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

the  time  that  body  was  considering  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act,  and  he  published  this  "  Examination  "  in  a 
pamphlet,  which  proved  remarkably  popular,  quieted 
the  furor  against  him,  and  once  more  brought  him  into 
favor. 

Despite  this  self-vindication,  as  he  continued  to 
counsel  moderate  measures,  Franklin  was  from  this 
time  mistrusted  by  such  Whigs  as  James  Otis,  Samuel 
Adams,  John  Dickinson,  R.  H.  Lee,  and  other  ex- 
tremists, and  they  did  not  consider  him  as  belonging 
to  their  party.  Yet  this  did  not  gain  him  favor  with 
the  government  party  in  Great  Britain,  and  after  years 
of  labor  he  could  only  describe  his  position  as  follows : 

"  Being  born  and  bred  in  one  of  the  countries,  and  having 
lived  long  and  made  many  agreeable  connexions  of  friend- 
ship in  the  other,  I  wish  all  prosperity  to  both ;  but  I  have 
talked  and  written  so  much  and  so  long  on  the  subject,  that 
my  acquaintance  are  weary  of  hearing,  and  the  public  of 
reading,  any  more  of  it,  which  begins  to  make  me  weary  of 
talking  and  writing ;  especially  as  I  do  not  find  that  I  have 
gained  any  point  in  either  country,  except  that  of  rendering 
myself  suspected  by  my  impartiality ;— in  England,  of  being 
too  much  an  American,  and  in  America,  of  being  too  much 
an  Englishman." 

It  was  in  1774  that  the  maintenance  of  this  media- 
torial position  was  made  impossible  to  him  by  a  famous 
sequence  of  events.  Complaining  to  "  a  gentleman  of 
character  and  distinction  "  of  the  sending  of  troops  to 
Boston,  and  the  other  repressive  measures,  Franklin 
was  assured  that  none  of  them  originated  with  the 
ministry,  but  were  "  solicited  and  obtained  by  some  of 
the  most  respectable  of  the  Americans  themselves,  as 

446 


POLITICIAN   AND   DIPLOMATIST 

necessary  measures  for  the  welfare  of  that  country." 
Upon  Franklin  doubting  his  statement,  "  he  called  on 
me  some  days  after  and  produced  to  me  .  .  .  letters 
from  Lieutenant  Governor  Hutchinson,  Secretary  Oliver 
and  others,"  recommending  the  sending  of  troops  and 
men-of-war,  and  advising  that  in  the  colonies  "  there 
must  be  an  abridgment  of  what  are  called  English  lib- 
erties." "Though  astonished,  I  could  not  but  confess 
myself  convinced."  With  these  in  his  possession,  the 
colony  agent  believed  it  possible  to  bring  about  a 
reconciliation,  and  he  begged  permission  to  let  his 
countrymen  know  of  their  existence,  for  he  honestly 
believed  that  this  would  end  the  ill  feeling  against 
Great  Britain,  and  place  it  instead  upon  the  shoulders 
of  the  letter- writers.  In  this  judgment  he  was  entirely 
correct,  for  he  was  shortly  able  to  write  the  colonial 
secretary  that  "  a  sincere  disposition  prevails  in  the 
people  there  to  be  on  good  terms  with  the  mother 
country  .  .  .  and  it  is  said  that  having  immediately  dis- 
covered, as  they  think,  the  authors  of  their  grievances 
to  be  some  of  their  own  people,  their  resentment  against 
Britain  is  thence  much  abated." 

Unfortunately  for  the  hope  of  the  colony  agent,  the 
British  ministry,  which  for  years  had  been  vacillating 
in  the  policy  to  be  pursued  as  regards  America,  was  at 
that  moment  in  one  of  its  numerous  periods  of  reaction, 
and,  with  a  folly  which  to-day  seems  unbelievable,  in- 
stead of  availing  itself  of  this  opportunity,  it  sought  to 
use  it  as  a  means  of  destroying  the  one  American  who 
had  consistently  striven  to  heal  the  breach.  Upon  a 
hearing  before  the  Privy  Council  of  a  petition  from 

447 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Massachusetts  Bay  for  the  removal  from  office  of  the 
writers  of  these  criminatory  letters,  instead  of  dealing 
with  the  petition,  the  solicitor-general,  Alexander  Wed- 
derburn,  launched  into  a  savage  personal  attack  upon 
Franklin,  whom  he  charged  with  having  obtained  the 
letters  by  fraud,  if  not  by  theft. 

"  I  hope,  my  Lords,"  he  said,  "  you  will  mark  and  brand  the 
man,  for  the  honor  of  this  country,  of  Europe,  and  of  man- 
kind. Private  correspondence  has  hitherto  been  held  sacred, 
in  times  of  the  greatest  party  rage,  not  only  in  politics  but  re- 
ligion. He  has  forfeited  all  the  respect  of  societies  and  of 
men.  Into  what  companies  will  he  hereafter  go  with  an  un- 
embarrassed face,  or  the  honest  intrepidity  of  virtue?  Men 
will  watch  him  with  a  jealous  eye ;  they  will  hide  their  papers 
from  him,  and  lock  up  their  escritoires.  He  will  henceforth 
esteem  it  a  libel  to  be  called  a  man  of  letters;-  homo  TRIUM 
[that  is,  FUR,  or  thief]  literarum  !  " 

Then,  after  reasserting  the  sacredness  of  a  private  cor- 
respondence, he  continued : 

"  This  property  is  as  sacred  and  as  precious  to  Gentlemen  of 
integrity,  as  their  family  plate  or  jewels  are.  And  no  man 
who  knows  the  Whatelys,  will  doubt,  but  that  they  would 
much  sooner  have  chosen,  that  any  person  should  have  taken 
their  plate  and  sent  it  to  Holland  for  his  avarice,  than  that  he 
should  have  secreted  the  letters  of  their  friends,  their  brother's 
friend,  and  their  father's  friend,  and  sent  them  away  to  Bos- 
ton to  gratify  an  enemy's  malice.  ...  A  foreign  Ambassador 
when  residing  here,  just  before  the  breaking  out  of  a  war, 
or  upon  particular  occasions,  may  bribe  a  villain  to  steal  or 
betray  any  state  papers  ;  he  is  under  the  command  of  another 
state,  and  is  not  amenable  to  the  laws  of  the  country  where  he 
resides ;  and  the  secure  exemption  from  punishment  may  in- 
duce a  laxer  morality.  But  Mr.  Franklin,  whatever  he  may 
teach  the  people  at  Boston,  while  he  is  here  at  least  is  a 
subject." 

448 


POLITICIAN   AND   DIPLOMATIST 

There  has  been  much  discussion  as  to  whether  Frank- 
lin acted  honorably  in  transmitting  these  letters,  which 
might  have  been  saved  had  his  own  simple  statement 
been  properly  weighed.  The  letters  were  shown  him 
by  a  personal  friend,  a  member  of  Parliament,  "  whom 
I  am  not  at  present  permitted  to  name,"  but  who, 
Franklin  asserts,  was  "  a  gentleman  of  character  and 
distinction."  The  colony  agent,  deeming  it  "  my  duty 
to  give  my  constituents  intelligence  of  such  importance 
to  their  affairs,"  finally  won  from  this  friend  the  privi- 
lege of  sending  the  letters  to  the  Massachusetts  leaders. 
It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  he  had  no  reason  to  believe 
that  they  had  been  wrongfully  obtained,  or  that  his 
friend  had  not  the  right  to  allow  him  to  transmit  them  ; 
on  the  contrary,  he  declared  that  "  he  came  by  them 
honorably."  If  blame  there  is,  it  must  rest  on  this  still 
unknown  man,  and  Franklin,  in  bearing  all  the  vituper- 
ation which  was  heaped  upon  him,  was  but  sacrificing 
himself  to  shield  another.  The  probabilities  favor  the 
view  that  this  was  William  Strahan,  whose  position  as 
printer  to  the  king  made  it  necessary  that  his  share 
should  remain  unknown. 

Wedderburn's  attack  was,  with  the  facts  at  his  dis- 
posal, wholly  unjustifiable,  and  would  have  been  with- 
out weight  but  for  the  circumstances  which  produced 
it,  for  his  speech  was  in  truth  but  the  expression, 
Franklin  says,  of  "  a  court  clamor  .  .  .  raised  against 
me  as  an  incendiary."  "  And  the  decrying  and  the  vili- 
fying of  the  people  of  that  country,  and  me  as  their 
agent  among  the  rest,  was  quite  a  court  measure."  His 
assertions  are  proved  by  the  conduct  of  the  Privy  Coun- 

449 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

cil,  for,  without  even  a  pretense  of  judging  the  cause 
before  them,  during  Wedderburn's  speech  "  all  the 
members  of  the  Council,  the  President  himself  (Lord 
Gower)  not  excepted,  frequently  laughed  outright." 
Another  eye-witness  states  that  "  he  made  them  so  far 
forget  themselves,  and  the  character  in  which  they  offi- 
ciated, as  to  cry  out,  Hear  him  !  Hear  him  ! '  '  and 
Franklin  speaks  of  their  frequently  breaking  into  ap- 
plause. One  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of  the  period,  and 
one  fitted  to  hold  the  scales  impartially,  in  his  account 
of  the  trial,  said:  "I  had  the  grievous  mortification  to 
hear  Mr.  Wedderburn  wandering  from  the  proper  ques- 
tion before  their  Lordships,  pour  forth  such  a  torrent 
of  virulent  abuse  on  Dr.  Franklin  as  never  before  took 
place  within  the  compass  of  my  knowledge  of  judicial 
proceedings,  his  reproaches  appearing  to  me  incom- 
patible with  the  principles  of  law,  truth,  justice,  pro- 
priety and  humanity." 

Franklin  took  this  attack  calmly,  but  none  the  less  it 
stung  him  deeply.  However  bitterly  he  felt,  personally, 
he  still,  though  further  injured  by  being  deprived  of  his 
office  of  joint  Deputy  Postmaster-General,  strove  to 
bring  about  some  agreement.  "I  long  labored  in  Eng- 
land," he  asserted  later,  "  with  great  zeal  and  sincerity, 
to  prevent  the  breach  that  has  happened,  and  which  is 
now  so  wide  that  no  endeavors  of  mine  can  possibly 
heal  it.  You  know  the  treatment  I  met  with  from  that 
imprudent  court;  but  I  keep  a  separate  account  of  pri- 
vate injuries,  which  I  may  forgive ;  and  I  do  not  think 
it  right  to  mix  them  with  public  affairs."  With  Lord 
Chatham,  who  sent  for  him,  he  discussed  the  possibility 

45° 


RICHARD,    EARL  HOWE,    K.G.       (PAINTED  BY  HENRY  SINGLETON.) 
In  the  National  Portrait  Gallery. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

of  reconciling  the  two  countries,  and  was  present  by  his 
invitation  when  the  earl  made  his  motion  in  the  House 
of  Lords  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  troops  from  Boston, 
and  again  when  he  submitted  a  plan  of  conciliation;  in- 
deed, Franklin  was  charged  in  the  ensuing  debate  with 
being  the  author  of  it.  Nor  did  he  limit  his  efforts  to 
those  in  opposition,  but  brought  into  relation  with  Lord 
Howe,  the  chosen  instrument  of  the  ministry,  already 
"  ashamed  "  of  the  treatment  accorded  to  him,  by  the 
earl's  sister,  Mrs.  Howe,  with  whom  he  played  at  chess, 
he  did  his  utmost  to  reach  some  common  ground  of 
agreement.  Howe  promised  to  grant  Franklin,  if  he 
would  but  secure  the  pacification  of  the  colonies,  "  any 
reward  in  the  power  of  government  to  bestow,"  a  prom- 
ise which  Franklin  said  was  to  him  "  what  the  French 
vulgarly  call  spitting  in  the  soup."  But  not  taking  of- 
fense, he  agreed  that,  if  Lord  Howe  received  the  ap- 
pointment of  commissioner  to  America,  and  the  propo- 
sitions to  that  country  were  such  as  met  his  approval, 
he  would  gladly  go  as  his  secretary.  He  even  guaran- 
teed, "without  any  instruction  to  warrant  my  so  doing, 
or  assurance  that  I  should  be  reimbursed,  or  my  con- 
duct approved,"  that  the  tea  should  be  paid  for,  if  the 
colonies  were  but  granted  justice,  "  an  engagement  in 
which  I  must  have  risked  my  whole  fortune."  All 
these  negotiations  came  to  nothing,  however,  and  when 
at  last  convinced  that  it  was  but  a  waste  of  time,  he 
took  ship  for  America. 

The  abuse  and  persecution  the  ministry  had  heaped 
upon  Franklin  had  not  merely  restored  his  former  pop- 
ularity in  America,  but  had  enormously  added  to  it. 

452 


POLITICIAN    AND   DIPLOMATIST 

He  was  quickly  elected  to  the  Continental  Congress,  to 
the  Pennsylvania  Assembly,  and  to  the  Pennsylvania 
Convention.  Congress  appointed  him  Postmaster- 
General  and  a  member  of  many  important  committees ; 
Pennsylvania  made  him  chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Safety,  which  was  practically  the  governorship  of  the 
colony,  and  the  Convention  chose  him  for  their  presi- 
dent. "  My  time,"  he  wrote  a  friend,  "  was  never  more 
fully  employed.  In  the  morning  at  six,  I  am  at  the 
Committee  of  Safety,  appointed  by  the  Assembly  to 
put  the  province  in  a  state  of  defence  ;  which  committee 
holds  till  near  nine,  when  I  am  at  the  Congress,  and 
that  sits  till  four  in  the  afternoon." 

How  Franklin  avoided,  so  far  as  possible,  any  share 
in  the  drafting  of  the  public  papers  of  the  Congress  has 
been  told  already.  Nor  was  he  more  forward  in  debate. 
It  was  Poor  Richard  who  remarked,  "  Here  comes  the 
orator,  with  his  flood  of  words,  and  his  drop  of  reason," 
and  during  his  whole  life  Franklin  was  no  speech-maker. 
"  I  served,"  Jefferson  said,  "  with  General  Washington 
in  the  legislature  of  Virginia  before  the  revolution,  and 
during  it,  with  Dr.  Franklin  in  Congress.  I  never  heard 
either  of  them  speak  ten  minutes  at  a  time,  nor  to  any 
but  the  main  point  which  was  to  decide  the  question. 
They  laid  their  shoulders  to  the  great  points,  knowing 
that  the  little  ones  would  follow  of  themselves."  Frank- 
lin himself  bears  this  out  by  saying  that  "  I  was  but  a 
bad  speaker,  never  eloquent,  subject  to  much  hesitation 
in  my  choice  of  words,  hardly  correct  in  language,  and 
yet  I  generally  carried  my  points."  John  Adams,  in 
one  of  his  periodic  outbursts  against  the  man  whom  the 

29*  453 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

public  deemed  greater  than  himself,  contrasted  his  own 
services  in  Congress,  in  which  he  claimed  to  have  been 
"  active  and  alert  in  every  branch  of  business,  both  in 
the  House  and  on  committees,  constantly  proposing 
measures,  supporting  those  I  approved  when  moved  by 
others,  opposing  such  as  I  disapproved,  discussing  and 
arguing  on  every  question,"  with  those  of  Franklin, 
who  was  seen,  he  says,  "  from  day  to  day,  sitting  in 
silence,  a  great  part  of  his  time  fast  asleep  in  his  chair." 
Yet  Franklin  was  appointed  on  every  important  com- 
mittee, and  Adams  on  few;  and  the  sage,  could  he  but 
have  read  his  brother  congressman's  comparison,  might 
fairly  have  retorted,  with  the  wisdom  of  Poor  Richard, 
"  He  that  speaks  much,  is  much  mistaken,"  or,  "  The 
worst  wheel  of  the  cart  makes  the  most  noise." 

However  little  Franklin  may  have  seemed  to  have 
accomplished  to  those  who  elected  to  think  so,  one 
service  he  attempted  is  not  to  be  passed  over.  As  he 
had  been  among  the  first  to  suggest  a  union  of  the  col- 
onies under  Great  Britain,  so  he  was  foremost  in  advo- 
cating their  immediate  union  in  their  contest  with  the 
mother-country ;  and  long  before  the  majority  of  Con- 
gress saw  the  wisdom  of  the  purpose,  or  were  even 
willing  to  consider  it,  he  drafted  and  laid  before  that 
body  his  Articles  of  Confederation,  the  first  true  step 
toward  a  national  union.  In  the  politics  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, too,  he  wielded  a  most  dominating  influence,  for 
it  was  chiefly  through  his  exertions  that  the  old  Penn 
charter  was  abrogated,  and  a  new  republican  consti- 
tution obtained  in  its  stead.  In  the  effecting  of  this 
change,  too,  he  succeeded  in  finally  crushing  the  pro- 

454 


POLITICIAN   AND   DIPLOMATIST 

prietary  or  aristocratic  party,  which  had  folight  him 
with  such  bitterness  for  over  twenty  years,  so  that  never 
again  did  it  recover  its  influence  in  the  State  —  a  blow 
the  leading  families  never  forgave,  and  the  resentment 


THE   HON.    MRS.    HOWE.        (FROM    AN    ENGRAVING    I!Y 

IIOI'WOOD   OF   THE    DRAWING   BY   CRAIG.) 
In  the  Emmet  collection,  Lenox  Library,  New  Yotk. 

of  which   expresses   itself  socially  even   to  this  day  in 
Philadelphia. 

Vital  as  were  his  labors  in  local  politics,  in  the 
Congress,  in  Canada,  at  Cambridge,  and  at  Staten 
Island,  he  was  more  needed,  and  in  fact  seems  to 

455 


THE    MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

have  been  preordained  by  nature  and  training,  for  an- 
other service.  Once  the  war,  from  being  an  attempt  to 
wrest  rights  from  an  acknowledged  sovereign,  became 
a  conflict  to  maintain  independence,  the  new-formed 
country  turned  for  assistance  to  France,  then  the  great 
enemy  of  Britain.  Almost  alone  of  the  congress- 
men, Franklin  had  traveled  in  that  country,  and  had 
both  friends  and  repute  there.  Even  more  important, 
however,  was  the  fact  that  already  semi-approaches  had 
been  made  to  him  by  those  in  authority.  Years  before, 
when  the  excitement  over  the  new  doctrine  of  colonial 
taxation  was  sounding  a  warning  which  the  British  peo- 
ple would  not  hear,  there  were  others  quick  to  heed  the 
murmur  of  discontent  and  complaint,  and  to  recognize 
in  it  a  means  for  injuring  their  foe  as  they  had  never 
yet  been  able  to  do.  But  if  the  times  were  ripening, 
the  colony  agent  was  not  yet  ready  to  part  with  old 
lamps  for  new  ones. 

"  Du  Guerchy,  the  French  ambassador,  is  gone  home,"  he  re- 
lates, "  and  Monsieur  Durand  is  left  minister  plenipotentiary. 
He  is  extremely  curious  to  inform  himself  in  the  affairs  of 
America ;  pretends  to  have  a  great  esteem  for  me,  on  account 
of  the  abilities  shown  in  my  examination  ;  has  desired  to  have 
all  my  political  writings,  invited  me  to  dine  with  him,  was 
very  inquisitive,  treated  me  with  great  civility,  makes  me  visits, 
&c.  I  fancy  that  intriguing  nation  would  like  very  well  to 
meddle  on  occasion,  and  blow  up  the  coals  between  Britain 
and  her  colonies ;  but  I  hope  we  shall  give  them  no  oppor- 
tunity." 

Not  quite  ten  years  after  this  was  written,  Franklin 
was  sailing  across  the  Atlantic,  one  of  three  commis- 

456 


POLITICIAN    AND    DIPLOMATIST 

sioners  sent  to  beg  the  aid  of  France  ;  and  to  an  Eng- 
lish friend  who  chided  him  for  disloyalty,  he  replied : 

"  I  was  fond  to  a  folly  of  our  British  connections,  and  it 
was  with  infinite  regret  that  I  saw  the  necessity  you  would 
force  us  into  of  breaking  it.  But  the  extreme  cruelty  with 
which  we  have  been  treated  has  now  extinguished  every 
thought  of  returning  to  it,  and  separated  us  for  ever.  You 
have  thereby  lost  limbs  that  will  never  grow  again." 

It  has  been  said  of  Franklin  by  the  historian  of 
American  diplomacy  that  he  must  be  considered  the 
one  true  diplomat  America  has  ever  produced ;  and 
when  his  services,  and  the  circumstances  under  which 
they  were  rendered,  are  weighed,  the  statement  seems 
justifiable.  Almost  from  the  moment  of  his  arrival  in 
Paris,  he  came  to  exercise  an  influence  with  the  French 
ministry  which  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  The  reit- 
erated charge  of  his  enemies  was  that  he  was  the  tool 
of  France  and  always  acted  in  her  interests ;  but  his 
successor  in  office,  Jefferson,  who  was  of  all  men  the 
best  fitted  to  know  the  truth  of  this,  asserted : 

"As  to  the  charge  of  subservience  to  France,  .  .  .  two 
years  of  my  own  service  with  him  at  Paris,  daily  visits,  and 
the  most  friendly  and  confidential  conversation,  convince 
me  it  had  not  a  shadow  of  foundation.  He  possessed  the 
confidence  of  that  government  in  the  highest  degree,  inso- 
much, that  it  may  truly  be  said,  that  they  were  more  under 
his  influence,  than  he  under  theirs.  The  fact  is,  that  his  tem- 
per was  so  amiable  and  conciliatory,  his  conduct  so  rational, 
never  urging  impossibilities,  or  even  things  unreasonably  in- 
convenient to  them,  in  short,  so  moderate  and  attentive  to 
their  difficulties,  as  well  as  our  own,  that  what  his  enemies 
called  subservience,  I  saw  was  only  that  reasonable  disposi- 
tion, which,  sensible  that  advantages  are  not  all  to  be  on  one 

457 


POLITICIAN   AND   DIPLOMATIST 

side,  yielding  what  is  just  and  liberal,  is  the  more  certain  of 
obtaining  liberality  and  justice.  Mutual  confidence  produces, 
of  course,  mutual  influence,  and  this  was  all  which  subsisted 
between  Dr.  Franklin  and  the  government  of  France." 


This  individual  opinion  all  the  documentary  evidence 
goes  to  reinforce,  and  it  is  impossible,  in  studying  it, 
not  to  conclude  that  the  opposition  to  and  attacks  upon 
Franklin  by  his  own  countrymen  were  due  primarily  to 
the  dislike  and  the  jealousy  of  his  fellow-commissioners, 
Lee  and  Adams,  who,  unable  to  compete  with  him  in 
France,  were  driven  to  raise  a  cabal  against  him  in 
America,  composed  of  almost  the  identical  elements 
which  endeavored  to  bring  about  the  removal  of  Wash- 
ington from  the  command  of  the  armies,  and  which  suc- 
cessfully wrought  the  political  ruin  of  John  Dickinson 
and  Robert  Morris.  "  Dr.  Franklin,"  JefTerson  long 
after  said,  "  had  many  political  enemies,  as  every 
character  must,  which,  with  decision  enough  to  have 
opinions,  has  energy  and  talent  to  give  them  effect  on 
the  feelings  of  the  adversary  opinion.  These  enmities 
were  chiefly  in  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts.  In 
the  former,  they  were  merely  of  the  proprietary  party. 
In  the  latter,  they  did  not  commence  till  the  Revolu- 
tion, and  then  sprung  chiefly  from  personal  animosities, 
which  spreading  by  little  and  little,  became  at  length 
of  some  extent.  Dr.  Lee  was  his  principal  calumniator, 
a  man  of  much  malignity,  who,  besides  enlisting  his 
whole  family  in  the  same  hostility,  was  enabled,  as  the 
agent  of  Massachusetts  with  the  British  government,  to 
infuse  it  into  that  State  with  considerable  effect.  Mr. 

459 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Izard,  the  Doctor's  enemy  also,  but  from  a  pecuniary 
transaction,  never  countenanced  these  charges  against 
him.  Mr.  Jay,  Silas  Deane,  Mr.  Laurens,  his  colleagues 
also,  ever  maintained  towards  him  unlimited  confidence 
and  respect." 

Strangely  enough,  Franklin  was  saved  from  his 
countrymen  by  the  intervention  of  France.  Very 
early  in  the  mission  the  ministry  of  that  country  de- 
liberately took  the  step  of  ignoring  Franklin's  fellow- 
commissioners,  and  again  and  again,  in  granting  aids, 
stipulated  to  him  that  Lee  and  Adams  should  know 
nothing;  and  so  Franklin  was  forced  repeatedly,  in 
writing  to  Congress,  to  tell  them  that  "  the  other  com- 
missioners are  not  acquainted  with  this  proposition  as 
yet  ...  I  being  expressly  enjoined  not  to  com- 
municate it  to  any  other  person,  not  even  to  the  other 
gentlemen."  It  was  not  strange,  under  these  circum- 
stances, that  his  fellow-commissioners  united  in  abusing 
him.  Lee  complained  that  "  if  Dr.  Franklin's  jealousy 
and  intolerant  spirit,  together  with  the  artifices  succes- 
sively employed,  had  not  incapacitated  the  other  from 
serving  their  country  and  the  common  cause  by  their 
advice  and  information,"  many  imaginary  ills  would  not 
have  come  to  pass ;  and  Adams  asserted  that  Ver- 
gennes  made  Franklin  his  confidant  only  "  because  he 
could  manage  him  as  he  pleased."  Their  fellow-com- 
missioner took  all  their  abuse  and  plotting  calmly,  and 
one  anecdote  will  serve  to  show  how  little  it  moved  him  : 

"  Mr.  Z.  [Adams]  while  at  Paris  had  often  pressed  the  Dr. 
to  communicate  to  him  his  several  negotiations  with  the  Ct. 

460 


POLITICIAN   AND   DIPLOMATIST 

of  France,  wch.  the  Dr.  avoided  as  decently  as  he  could.  At 
length  he  received  from  Mr.  Z.  [Adams]  a  very  intemperate 
letter.  He  folded  it  up  and  put  it  into  a  pigeon  hole.  A  2d, 
3d  &  so  on  to  a  fifth  or  sixth  he  reed.  &  disposed  of  in  the 
same  way.  Finding  no  answer  could  be  obtained  by  letter, 
Mr.  Z.  [Adams]  paid  him  a  personal  visit  &  gave  a  loose  to 
all  the  warmth  of  which  he  was  susceptible.  The  Dr.  replied, 
I  can  no  more  answer  this  conversation  than  the  several  im- 
patient letters  you  have  written  me,  (taking  them  down  from 
the  pigeon  hole,)  call  on  me  when  you  are  cool  &  good 
humored  &  I  will  justify  myself  to  you." 

"Dr.  Lee's  accusation  of  Capt  Landais  for  insanity," 
wrote  Franklin,  "  was  probably  well  founded ;  as  in  my 
opinion  would  have  been  the  same  accusation,  if  it  had 
been  brought  by  Landais  against  Lee ;  for  though  nei- 
ther of  them  are  permanently  mad,  they  are  both  so  at 
times ;  and  the  insanity  of  the  latter  is  the  most  mis- 
chievous." Of  Adams  he  said:  "The  extravagant  and 
violent  language  held  here  by  a  public  person,  in  pub- 
lic company,  which  have  a  tendency  to  diminish  the 
union  with  France,  are  here,  and  I  hope  there  [in 
America],  imputed  to  the  true  cause — a  disorder  in 
the  brain,  which,  though  not  constant,  has  its  fits  too 
frequent."  Whether  it  was  jealousy  or  insanity,  the 
time  came  when,  practically,  the  public  business  had 
come  to  a  standstill,  and,  convinced  of  this,  Franklin 
offered  to  resign  ;  but  the  French  government  inter- 
fered, and  through  their  American  envoy  secured  the 
recall  of  Franklin's  rivals,  and  the  election  of  Franklin 
as  sole  minister  to  France. 

"  The  Congress  have  done  me  the  honor,"  Franklin  said,  "  to 
refuse  accepting  my  resignation,  and  insist  on  my  continuing 

461 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

in  their  service  till  the  peace.  I  must  therefore  buckle  again 
to  business,  and  thank  God  that  my  health  and  spirits  are  of 
late  improved.  I  fancy  it  may  have  been  a  double  mortifica- 
tion to  those  enemies  you  have  mentioned  to  me,  that  I  should 
ask  as  a  favor  what  they  hoped  to  vex  me  by  taking  from  me  ; 
and  that  I  should  nevertheless  be  continued.  But  this  sort  of 
consideration  should  never  influence  our  conduct.  We  ought 
always  to  do  what  appears  best  to  be  done,  without  much  re- 
garding what  others  may  think  of  it.  I  call  this  continuance 
an  honor,  and  I  really  esteem  it  to  be  a  greater  than  my  first 
appointment,  when  I  consider  that  all  the  interest  of  my  ene- 
mies, united  with  my  own  request,  were  not  sufficient  to  pre- 
vent it." 

An  interesting  feature  of  these  years  of  negotiation 
were  the  indirect  overtures  made  Franklin  by  the  British 
ministry.  Though  George  III  was  convinced  that 
"hatred  of  this  country  is  the  constant  object  of  his 
mind,"  he  yet  thought  it  "  proper  to  keep  open  the 
channel  of  intercourse  with  that  insidious  man,"  and 
through  David  Hartley  and  other  informal  agents  he 
endeavored  to  negotiate  an  arrangement  which  should 
regain  at  least  a  nominal  sovereignty  over  the  colonies, 
and  by  ending  the  war  with  them  enable  England  "to 
avenge  the  faithless  and  insolent  conduct  of  France." 
But  Franklin  held  that  "  the  true  political  interest  of 
America  consists  in  observing  and  fulfilling,  with  the 
greatest  exactitude,  the  engagements  of  our  alliance 
with  France,  and  behaving  at  the  same  time  towards 
England  so  as  not  entirely  to  extinguish  her  hopes  of  a 
reconciliation,"  and  so  he  refused  to  play  false  to  an  ally, 
or  consider  a  reunion  with  Great  Britain,  on  any  terms. 

"  You  may  please  yourselves  and  your  children,"  he  told  one 
of  these  negotiators,  "  with  the  rattle  of  your  right  to  govern 

462 


DAVID   HARTLEY. 

From  the  painting  by  Walker  of  the  portrait  by  Romney,  formerly  owned  by 
Clarence  W.  Bement,  Esq. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

us,  as  long  as  you  have  done  with  that  of  your  king's  being 
king  of  France,  without  giving  us  the  least  concern,  if  you  do 
not  attempt  to  exercise  it.  That  this  pretended  right  is  indis- 
putable, as  you  say,  we  utterly  deny.  Your  Parliament  never 
had  a  right  to  govern  us,  and  your  king  has  forfeited  it  by  his 
bloody  tyranny." 

"The  English  seem  not  to  know  either  how  to  con- 
tinue the  war,  or  to  make  peace  with  us,"  he  told 
Washington,  even  after  Yorktown ;  but  finally  a  treaty 
was  concluded,  and,  his  work  done,  he  turned  home- 
ward, writing  to  the  Englishman  who  had  striven  most 
for  peace  the  following  farewell :  "  I  cannot  quit  the 
coasts  of  Europe  without  taking  leave  of  my  ever  dear 
friend,  Mr.  Hartley.  We  were  long  fellow-laborers  in 
the  best  of  all  works,  the  work  of  peace.  I  leave  you 
still  in  the  field,  but,  having  finished  my  day's  task,  I 
am  going  home  to  go  to  bed.  Wish  me  a  good  night's 
rest,  as  I  do  you  a  pleasant  evening." 

This  hope  for  a  rest  was  but  illusive.  No  sooner 
had  he  landed  at  Philadelphia  than  "  the  two  parties 
in  the  Assembly  and  Council,  the  constitutionists  and 
anti-constitutionists,  joined  in  requesting  my  service  as 
counsellor,  and  afterwards  in  electing  me  as  President. 
Of  seventy-four  members  in  Council  and  Assembly, 
who  voted  by  ballot,  there  was  in  my  first  election  but 
one  negative,  besides  my  own."  "  I  had  on  my  return 
some  right,"  he  acknowledged  to  a  friend,  "  to  expect 
repose ;  and  it  was  my  intention  to  avoid  all  public 
business.  But  I  had  not  firmness  enough  to  resist  the 
unanimous  desire  of  my  country  folks ;  and  I  find  my- 
self harnessed  again  in  their  service  for  another  year. 

464 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

They  engrossed  the  prime  of  my  life.     They  have  eaten 
my  flesh,  and  seem  resolved  now  to  pick  my  bones." 

It  is  poetically  appropriate  that  his  last  public  ser- 
vice was  performed  in  the  Federal  Convention,  and  that 
no  man  in  that  body  contributed  more  to  bring  about  the 
lasting  union  of  the  States,  of  which  he  had  been  among 
the  earliest  suggestors,  and  for  which  he  had  worked  so 
unceasingly.  His  closing  remarks,  "  whilst  the  last  mem- 
bers were  signing,"  form  a  fitting  end  to  his  own  career. 

"  Dr.  Franklin,  looking  towards  the  president's  chair,  at  the 
back  of  which  a  rising  sun  happened  to  be  painted,  observed 
to  a  few  members  near  him,  that  painters  had  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  distinguish,  in  their  art,  a  rising  from  a  setting  sun. 
'  I  have,'  said  he,  '  often  and  often,  in  the  course  of  the  ses- 
sion, and  the  vicissitudes  of  my  hopes  and  fears  as  to  its 
issue,  looked  at  that  behind  the  president,  without  being  able 
to  tell  whether  it  was  rising  or  setting ;  but  now,  at  length,  I 
have  the  happiness  to  know  that  it  is  a  rising,  and  not  a  set- 
ting sun.'  " 


FRANKLIN'S  CHESS-BOARD,  CHESSMEN,  AND  HOLDER. 

In  the  possession  of  C.  S.  Bradford,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
466 


VICTOR   HUGO  S   DRAWING   OK    FRANKLIN'S    HOUSE 
AT   PASSY. 


XII 


SOCIAL    LIFE 

"  r  I AHE  busy  man,"  quoth  Poor  Richard,  "has  few 
A  idle  Visitors  ;  to  the  boiling  Pot  the  Flies  come 
not."  But  this  was  only  one  of  his  many  aphorisms 
which  he  himself  disproved,  for,  however  manifold  his 
occupations,  there  never  seems  to  have  been  the  time 
when  he  had  not  friends,  and  the  time  to  see  them.  With 
his  first  arrival  in  Philadelphia,  he  relates  that  "  I  be- 
gan now  to  have  some  acquaintance  among  the  young 
people  of  the  town,  that  were  lovers  of  reading,  with 
whom  I  spent  my  evenings  very  pleasantly."  So  in 
London,  during  his  short  sojourn  there,  he  went  to  the 
taverns,  and  made  friends  of  the  "ingenious"  fre- 

467 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

quenters.  In  his  voyage  back  to  Philadelphia,  too,  an 
incident  served  to  show  his  social  inclinations.  A  pas- 
senger was  detected  marking  a  pack  of  cards,  was  tried 
for  it  by  his  fellow-voyagers,  and  being  convicted,  he 
was  condemned  to  pay  a  fine,  and  upon  his  refusal  was 
"  excommunicated  "  by  the  "  mess,"  every  "  one  refus- 
ing to  play,  eat,  drink  or  converse  with  him."  The 
embryo  philosopher  of  twenty  thereupon  noted  in  his 
journal  that : 

"  Alan  is  a  sociable  being,  and  it  is,  for  aught  I  know,  one  of 
the  worst  of  punishments  to  be  excluded  from  society.  I  have 
read  abundance  of  fine  things  on  the  subject  of  solitude,  and 
I  know  't  is  a  common  boast  in  the  mouths  of  those  that 
affect  to  be  thought  wise,  that  they  are  never  less  alone  than 
when  alone.  I  acknowledge  solitude  an  agreeable  refreshment 
to  a  busy  mind ;  but,  were  these  thinking  people  obliged  to 
be  always  alone,  I  am  apt  to  think  they  would  quickly  find 
their  very  being  insupportable  to  them." 

Once  established  in  Philadelphia,  as  already  told,  he 
founded  the  social  club  of  the  Junto.  For  this  little 
society  Franklin  ever  retained  the  warmest  feelings. 
Many  years  after  its  beginning,  he  wrote  from  England 
to  a  fellow-member: 

"  I  wish  you  would  continue  to  meet  the  Junto,  notwithstand- 
ing that  some  effects  of  our  public  political  misunderstandings 
may  sometimes  appear  there.  It  is  now  perhaps  one  of  the 
oldest  clubs,  as  I  think  it  was  formerly  one  of  the  best,  in  the 
King's  dominions.  It  wants  but  about  two  years  of  forty 
since  it  was  established." 

Still  later,  when  in  France,  he  said  : 

"You  tell  me  you  sometimes  visit  the  ancient  Junto.  I 
wish  you  would  do  it  oftener.  I  know  they  all  love  and 

468 


SOCIAL    LIFE 

respect  you,  and  regret  your  absenting  yourself  so  much. 
People  are  apt  to  grow  strange,  and  not  understand  one 
another  so  well,  when  they  meet  but  seldom.  Since  we  have 
held  that  Club  till  we  are  grown  gray  together,  let  us  hold  it 
out  to  the  end.  For  my  own  part,  I  find  I  love  company, 
chat,  a  laugh,  a  glass,  and  even  a  song,  as  well  as  ever,  and 
at  the  same  time  relish  better  than  I  used  to  do  the  grave 
observations  and  wise  sentences  of  old  men's  conversation ; 
so  that  I  am  sure  the  Junto  will  be  still  as  agreeable  to  me  as 
it  ever  has  been.  I  therefore  hope  it  will  not  be  discon- 
tinued as  long  as  we  are  able  to  crawl  together." 

In  its  most  active  period,  Franklin  states  in  his  auto- 
biography : 

"  Our  club,  the  Junto,  was  found  so  useful,  and  afforded 
such  satisfaction  to  the  members,  that  several  were  desirous 
of  introducing  their  friends,  which  could  not  well  be  done 
without  exceeding  what  we  had  settled  as  a  convenient 
number,  viz.,  twelve.  We  had  from  the  beginning  made  it  a 
rule  to  keep  our  institution  a  secret,  which  was  pretty  well 
observ'd ;  the  intention  was  to  avoid  applications  of  improper 
persons  for  admittance,  some  of  whom,  perhaps,  we  might 
find  it  difficult  to  refuse.  I  was  one  of  those  who  were 
against  any  addition  to  our  number,  but,  instead  of  it,  made 
in  writing  a  proposal,  that  every  member  separately  should 
endeavor  to  form  a  subordinate  club,  with  the  same  rules  re- 
specting queries,  etc.,  and  without  informing  them  of  the  con- 
nection with  the  Junto.  The  advantages  proposed  were,  the 
improvement  of  so  many  more  young  citizens  by  the  use  of 
our  institutions ;  our  better  acquaintance  with  the  general 
sentiments  of  the  inhabitants  on  any  occasion,  as  the  Junto 
member  might  propose  what  queries  we  should  desire,  and 
was  to  report  to  the  Junto  what  pass'd  in  his  separate  club ; 
the  promotion  of  our  particular  interests  in  business  by  more 
extensive  recommendation,  and  the  increase  of  our  influence 
in  public  affairs,  and  our  power  of  doing  good  by  spreading 
thro'  the  several  clubs  the  sentiments  of  the  Junto. 

"  The  project  was  approv'd,  and  every  member  undertook  to 
form  his  club,  but  they  did  not  all  succeed.  Five  or  six  only 

30*  469 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 


DR.    FRANKLIN. 

From  the  miniature  given  by  Dr.  Franklin  to  his  dear  friend,  Bishop  Jonathan 

land  to 
Hare. 


Shipley,  on  parting,  on  his  return  from  England  to  America. 
In  the  collection  of  Augustus  J.  C. 


were  compleated,  which  were  called  by  different  names,  as  the 
Vine,  the  Union,  the  Band,  etc.  They  were  useful  to  them- 
selves, and  afforded  us  a  good  deal  of  amusement,  informa- 
tion, and  instruction,  beside  answering,  in  some  considerable 
degree,  our  views  of  influencing  the  public  opinion  on  par- 
ticular occasions,  of  which  I  shall  give  some  instances  in 
course  of  time  as  they  happened." 

Another  expression  of  his   social   impulses   in  these 
47° 


SOCIAL   LIFE 

years  is  shown  by  his  being  one  of  the  organizers  of  the 
first  masonic  society  in  America,  in  1730.  In  1732  he 
was  appointed  a  warden,  and  in  1734  he  was  elected 
grand  master,  on  which  occasion  "  a  very  elegant 
Entertainment  was  provided,  and  the  Proprietor,  the 
Governor,  and  several  other  Persons  of  Distinction 
honour'd  the  Society  with  their  Presence." 

How,  by  his  exhibitions  of  electrical  phenomena, 
Franklin's  "  house  was  continually  full  for  some  time, 
with  people  who  came  to  see  these  new  wonders,"  has 
already  been  mentioned,  and  there  were  other  social 
incidents,  one  of  which  he  described  as  follows: 

"  It  is  proposed  to  put  an  end  to  [our  experiments]  for  this 
season,  somewhat  humorously,  in  a  party  of  pleasure  on  the 
banks  of  the  SkuylkilL  Spirits,  at  the  same  time,  are  to  be 
fired  by  a  spark  sent  from  side  to  side  through  the  river,  with- 
out any  other  conductor  than  the  water ;  an  experiment  which 
we  some  time  since  performed  to  the  amazement  of  many. 
A  turkey  is  to  be  killed  for  our  dinner  by  electrical  shock,  and 
roasted  by  the  electrical  jack,  before  a  fire  kindled  by  the 
electrified  bottle;  when  the  healths  of  all  the  famous  electricians 
in  England,  Holland,  France,  and  Germany  are  to  be  drank 
in  electrified  bumpers,  under  the  discharge  of  guns  from  the 
electrical  battery . ' ' 

His  share  in  the  Association,  the  hospital,  the  acad- 
emy, and  many  other  public-spirited  affairs  brought 
him  into  relation  with  all  the  prominent  folk,  and  he 
was  socially  received  by  the  best.  As  already  told, 
from  these  invitations  his  wife  was  omitted,  and  as 
Franklin  for  some  years  dwelt  over  his  shop,  and  later 
removed  "to  a  more  quiet  part  of  the  town,"  at  the 
corner  of  Sassafras  and  Second  streets,  where  he  lived 
"  as  to  the  Appearance"  "in  modest  circumstances," 

47  1 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

there  was  no  attempt  to  return  the  civilities  in  kind. 
Yet  there  was  a  welcome  and  a  homely  meal  and 
room  for  all  who  chose  to  come.  "  Mr.  Francis  spent 
last  evening  with  me,"  Franklin  told  the  future  presi- 
dent of  King's  College,  "  and  we  were  all  glad  to  hear 
that  you  seriously  meditate  a  visit  after  the  middle  of 
next  month,  and  that  you  will  inform  us  by  a  line  when 
to  expect  you.  We  drank  your  health  and  Mrs.  John- 
son's, remembering  your  kind  entertainment  of  us  in 
Stratford."  There  are  numerous  such  casual  allusions 
to  visitors  in  his  letters,  and  always  in  a  way  to  show 
that  they  were  boons  to  the  host. 

Whenever  Franklin  traveled,  as  his  concern  in  the 
post-office  often  necessitated,  he  was  the  object  of  the 
warmest  hospitality.  Of  one  visit  to  the  Northern 
States  he  said  : 

"  I  left  New  England  slowly,  and  with  great  reluctance. 
Short  day's  journeys,  and  loitering  visits  on  the  road,  for 
three  or  four  weeks,  manifested  my  unwillingness  to  quit  a 
country  in  which  I  drew  my  first  breath,  spent  my  earliest 
and  most  pleasant  days,  and  had  now  received  so  many  fresh 
marks  of  the  people's  goodness  and  benevolence,  in  the  kind 
and  affectionate  treatment  I  had  everywhere  met  with.  I 
almost  forgot  I  had  a  home,  till  I  was  more  than  half  way 
towards  it ;  till  I  had,  one  by  one,  parted  with  all  my  New 
England  friends,  and  was  got  into  the  western  borders  of  Con- 
necticut, among  mere  strangers." 

Another  letter  gives  a  glimpse  of  social  hours  in  New 
Jersey  and  New  York: 

"  The  Corporation  were  to  have  a  dinner  that  day  at  the 
Point  for  their  entertainment,  and  prevailed  on  us  to  stay. 
There  were  all  the  principal  people,  and  a  great  many  ladies. 

472 


SOCIAL    LIFE 

After  dinner  we  set  out,  and  got  here  before  dark.  We  waited 
on  the  governor  and  on  General  Amherst  yesterday,  dined 
with  Lord  Sterling,  went  in  the  evening  to  my  old  friend  Mr. 
Kennedy's  funeral,  and  are  to  dine  with  the  general  to-day." 

With  the  outbreak  of  the  bitter  political  contests  over 
the  proprietary  government,  the  "court"  party  pro- 
nounced an  edict  of  social  ostracism  against  him,  and 
henceforth  he  was  tabooed  at  such  houses  as  the  Aliens', 
Shippens',  Morrises',  and  other  aristocratic  families.  One 
enemy  declared  that  his  friends  had  generally  deserted 
him,  but  on  his  return  from  his  first  mission  to  England 
Franklin  indignantly  denied  this,  writing: 

"  Dr.  Smith's  reports  of  the  diminutions  of  my  friends  were 
all  false.  My  house  has  been  full  of  a  succession  of  them  from 
morning  to  night,  ever  since  my  arrival,  congratulating  me 
on  my  return  with  the  utmost  cordiality  and  affection.  My 
fellow  citizens,  while  I  was  on  the  sea,  had,  at  the  annual 
election,  chosen  me  unanimously,  as  they  had  done  every 
year  while  I  was  in  England,  to  be  their  representative  in 
Assembly,  and  would,  they  say,  if  I  had  not  disappointed  them 
by  coming  privately  to  town  before  they  heard  of  my  landing, 
have  met  me  with  500  horse." 

There  can  be  no  question  that  this  regard  was  re- 
ciprocated. From  Europe  he  wrote  on  one  occasion : 
"  I  thank  you  for  the  pleasing  account  you  give  me  of 
the  health  and  welfare  of  my  old  friends,  Hugh  Roberts, 
Luke  Morris,  Philip  Syng,  Samuel  Rhoads,  etc.,  with 
the  same  of  yourself  and  family.  Shake  the  old  ones 
by  the  hand  for  me,  and  give  the  young  ones  my  bless- 
ing." On  receiving  word  of  the  death  of  one,  he 
replied :  "  I  regret  the  loss  of  my  friend  Parsons. 
Death  begins  to  make  breaches  in  the  little  junto  of 

473 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

old  friends  that  he  had  long  forborne,  and  it  must  be 
expected  he  will  now  soon  pick  us  all  off  one  after  an- 
other." When  yet  another  break  in  his  circle  came  he 
was  grieved  "  to  hear  of  the  death  of  my  good  old  friend, 
Dr.  Evans.  I  have  lost  so  many  since  I  left  America, 
that  I  begin  to  fear  that  I  shall  find  myself  a  stranger 
among  strangers  when  I  return.  If  so,  I  must  come 
again  to  my  friends  in  England."  So  he  found  cause 
for  regret  in  the  separation  that  his  long  agencies  in 
Great  Britain  forced  upon  him. 

"  But  this  exile,  though  an  honorable  one,"  he  told  a  New 
England  friend,  "  is  become  grievous  to  me,  in  so  long  a  sepa- 
ration from  my  family,  friends,  and  country ;  all  which  you 
happily  enjoy ;  and  long  may  you  continue  to  enjoy  them.  I 
hope  for  the  great  pleasure  of  once  more  seeing  and  convers- 
ing with  you ;  and,  though  living  on  in  one's  children,  as  we 
both  may  do,  is  a  good  thing,  I  cannot  but  fancy  it  might  be 
better  to  continue  living  ourselves  at  the  same  time.  I  rejoice, 
therefore,  in  your  kind  intentions  of  including  me  in  the 
benefits  of  that  inestimable  stone,  which,  curing  all  diseases 
(even  old  age  itself),  will  enable  us  to  see  the  future  glorious 
state  of  our  America,  enjoying  in  full  security  her  own 
liberties,  and  offering  in  her  bosom  a  participation  of  them  to 
all  the  oppressed  of  other  nations.  I  anticipate  the  jolly  con- 
versation we  and  twenty  more  of  our  friends  may  have  a 
hundred  years  hence  on  this  subject,  over  that  well-replenished 
bowl  at  Cambridge  Commencement." 

Once  in  England,  although  he  lived  simply,  in  lodg- 
ings, he  formed  a  wide  and  steadily  growing  circle  of 
friends.  In  his  account  of  his  agency  to  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Assembly,  he  informed  that  body  that 

"  I  made  journeys,  partly  for  the  health,  and  partly  that  I 
might,  by  country  visits  to  persons  of  influence,  have  more 
convenient  opportunities  of  discoursing  with  them  on  our 

474 


SOCIAL   LIFE 

publick  affairs,  the  expense  of  which  journeys  was  not  easily 
proportion'd  and  separated.  And  being  myself  honoured  with 
visits  from  persons  of  quality  and  distinction,  I  was  obliged 
for  the  credit  of  the  province  to  live  in  a  fashion  and  expense, 


In  the  Emmet  collection,  Lenox  Library,  New  York. 

suitable  to  the  publick  character  I  sustain'd,  and  much  above 
what  I  should  have  done  if  I  had  been  consider'd  merely  as 
a  private  person :  and  this  difference  of  expense  was  not  easy 
to  distinguish,  and  charge  in  my  accounts." 

"  I    have   lately    made   a  journey  of  a   fortnight   to 

475 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Birmingham,  Sheffield,  Leeds,  and  Manchester,"  he 
told  a  correspondent,  "  and  returned  only  in  time  to  be 
at  court  on  the  King's  birthday,  which  was  yesterday." 
So  visits  were  made  to  Bath  and  other  English  resorts. 
Two  trips  to  Cambridge  with  his  son  he  described  as 
follows : 

"  We  stayed  there  a  week,  being  entertained  with  great 
kindness  by  the  principal  people,  and  shown  all  the  curiosities 
of  the  place ;  and  returning  by  another  road  to  see  more  of 
the  country,  we  came  again  to  London.  I  found  the  journey 
advantageous  to  my  health,  increasing  both  my  health  and 
spirits,  and  therefore,  as  all  the  great  folks  were  out  of  town, 
and  public  business  at  a  stand,  I  the  more  easily  prevailed 
with  myself  to  take  another  journey,  and  accept  the  invitation 
we  had,  to  be  again  at  Cambridge  at  the  Commencement,  the 
beginning  of  July.  We  went  accordingly,  were  present  at  all 
the  ceremonies,  dined  every  day  in  their  halls,  and  my  vanity 
was  not  a  little  gratified  by  the  particular  regard  shown  me 
by  the  chancellor  and  vice-chancellor  of  the  University  and 
the  heads  of  colleges." 

Even  more  enthusiastically  he  wrote  to  Lord  Kames 
of  an  excursion  with  his  son  into  Scotland : 

"  Our  conversation,  till  we  came  to  York,  was  chiefly  a 
recollection  of  what  we  had  seen  and  heard,  the  pleasures 
we  had  enjoyed,  and  the  kindnesses  we  had  received,  in  Scot- 
land, and  how  far  that  country  had  exceeded  our  expecta- 
tions. On  the  whole,  I  must  say,  I  think  the  time  we  spent 
there  was  six  weeks  of  the  densest  happiness  I  have  met  with 
in  any  part  of  my  life ;  and  the  agreeable  and  instructive 
society  we  found  there  in  such  plenty  has  left  so  pleasing  an 
impression  on  my  memory,  that,  did  not  strong  connexions 
draw  me  elsewhere,  I  believe  Scotland  would  be  the  country 
I  should  choose  to  spend  the  remainder  of  my  days  in." 

His  one  grief,  so  he  told  his  lordship,  was  that : 

"  I  did  not  press  you  and  Lady  Kames  more  strongly  to 
favor  us  with  your  company  farther.  How  much  more 

476 


SOCIAL   LIFE 

agreeable  would  our  journey  have  been,  if  we  could  have  en- 
joyed you  as  far  as  York.  We  could  have  beguiled  the  way, 
by  discoursing  on  a  thousand  things,  that  now  we  may  never 
have  an  opportunity  of  considering  together ;  for  conversation 
warms  the  mind,  enlivens  the  imagination,  and  is  continually 
starting  fresh  game,  that  is  immediately  pursued  and  taken, 
and  which  would  never  have  occurred  in  the  duller  intercourse 
of  epistolary  correspondence.  So  that  whenever  I  reflect  on 
the  great  pleasure  and  advantage  I  received  from  the  free 
communication  of  sentiment,  in  the  conversation  we  had  at 
Kames,  and  in  the  agreeable  little  rides  to  the  Tweed  side,  I 
shall  for  ever  regret  our  premature  parting." 

Clearly  the  liking  was  reciprocal,  for  not  long  after 
he  again  wrote  to  Kames : 

"  Your  invitation  to  make  another  jaunt  to  Scotland,  and 
offer  to  meet  us  half  way  en  famille,  was  extremely  obliging. 
Certainly  I  never  spent  my  time  anywhere  more  agreeably,  nor 
have  I  been  in  any  place  where  the  inhabitants  and  their  con- 
versation left  such  lastingly  pleasing  impressions  on  my  mind, 
accompanied  with  the  strongest  inclination  once  more  to  visit 
that  hospitable,  friendly,  and  sensible  people.  The  friendship 
your  Lordship  in  particular  honors  me  with  would  not,  you 
may  be  assured,  be  among  the  least  of  my  inducements." 

He  was  as  good  as  his  word  in  this,  for  once  again  he 
journeyed  northward,  a  pilgrimage  he  described  to  his 
son  as  follows : 

"In  Scotland  I  spent  five  days  with  Lord  Kames  at  his  seat, 
Blair  Drummond,  near  Stirling,  two  or  three  days  at  Glasgow, 
two  days  at  Carron  Iron  Works,  and  the  rest  of  the  month  in 
and  about  Edinburgh,  lodging  at  David  Hume's,  who  enter- 
tained me  with  the  greatest  kindness  and  hospitality,  as  did 
Lord  Kames  and  his  lady.  All  our  old  acquaintances  there, 
Sir  Alexander  Dick  and  lady,  Mr.  McGowan,  Drs.  Robertson, 
Cullen,  Black,  Ferguson,  Russel,  and  others,  inquired  affec- 
tionately of  your  welfare.  I  was  out  three  months." 

477 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Another  friend  he  was  fond  of  visiting  was  Lord 
Le  Despenser,  and  on  one,  if  not  more  occasions,  he 
clearly  forgot  Poor  Richard's  warning  that  "  fish  and 
visitors  smell  in  three  days,"  for  he  told  a  correspondent 
that  "  I  spent  sixteen  days  at  Lord  Le  Despencer's  most 
agreeably,  and  returned  in  good  health  and  spirits," 
elsewhere  noting,  during  another  stay,  that  "  I  am  in 


LORD    KAMES. 


this  house  as  much  at  my  ease  as  if  it  was  my  own ; 
and  the  gardens  are  a  paradise.  But  a  pleasanter  thing 
is  the  kind  countenance,  the  facetious  and  very  intelli- 
gent conversation  of  mine  host,  who  having  been  for 
many  years  engaged  in  public  affairs,  seen  all  parts  of 
Europe,  and  kept  the  best  company  in  the  world,  is 
himself  the  best  existing." 

Yet  a  third  British  home  to  which  he  always  went 
with  especial  pleasure  was  Twyford,  the  residence  of  his 
warm  friend  Bishop  Shipley.  "  I  now  breathe  with 

478 


SOCIAL   LIFE 

reluctance  the  smoky  air  of  London,"  Franklin  told 
him,  "  when  I  think  of  the  sweet  air  of  Twyford ;  and 
by  the  time  your  races  are  over,  or  about  the  middle  of 
next  month,  if  it  should  not  then  be  unsuitable  to  your 
engagements  or  other  purposes,  I  promise  myself  the 
happiness  of  spending  a  week  or  two  where  I  so  pleas- 
antly spent  the  last."  And  in  France  he  wrote  one  of 
the  Shipley  girls : 

"  Your  mention  of  the  summer  house  brings  fresh  to  my 
mind  all  the  pleasures  I  enjoyed  in  the  sweet  retreat  at 
Twyford  :  the  hours  of  agreeable  and  instructive  conversation 
with  the  amiable  family  at  table ;  with  its  father  alone ;  the 
delightful  walks  in  the  gardens  and  neighboring  grounds." 

These  were  specimens  of  his  true  intimacies,  but 
there  was  much  social  intercourse  of  a  more  formal 
nature.  Even  to  catalogue  his  friends  and  visits  would 
be  a  task  of  no  little  magnitude,  but  an  extract  from  a 
semi-journal  he  wrote  will  best  serve  to  give  a  slight 
idea  of  both,  and  to  show  how  his  time  was  spent : 

"Returning  from  Brighthelmstone,  I  called  to  visit  my 
friend  Mr.  Sargent,  at  his  seat,  Halstead,  in  Kent,  agreeable 
to  a  former  engagement.  He  let  me  know  that  he  had 
promised  to  conduct  me  to  Lord  Stanhope's  at  Chevening, 
who  expected  I  would'  call  on  him  when  I  came  into  that 
neighborhood.  We  accordingly  waited  on  Lord  Stanhope 
that  evening,  who  told  me  that  Lord  Chatham  desired  to  see 
me,  and  that  Mr.  Sargent's  house,  where  I  was  to  lodge,  being 
in  the  way,  he  would  call  for  me  there  the  next  morning,  and 
carry  me  to  Hayes.  This  was  done  accordingly.  That  truly 
great  man  received  me  with  abundance  of  civility.  .  .  . 
From  Hayes  I  went  to  Halstead,  Mr.  Sargent's  place,  to  dine, 
intending  thence  to  visit  Lord  Stanhope  at  Chevening;  but 
hearing  that  his  lordship  and  the  family  were  in  town,  I  stayed 
at  Halstead  all  night,  and  the  next  morning  went  to  Chisle- 

479 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

hurst  to  call  upon  Lord  Camden,  it  being  in  my  way  to  town. 
I  met  his  lordship  and  family  in  two  carriages  just  without  his 
gate,  going  on  a  visit  of  congratulation  to  Lord  Chatham  and 
his  lady,  on  the  late  marriage  of  their  daughter  to  Lord 
Mahon,  son  of  Lord  Stanhope.  They  were  to  be  back  at 
dinner ;  so  I  agreed  to  go  in,  stay  to  dinner,  and  spend  the 
evening  there,  and  not  return  to  town  till  next  morning." 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  there  were  not  enemies 
as  well  as  friends  in  these  years,  and  Franklin's  social 
experience  with  one  of  these  gives  an  amusing  insight 
into  his  character  and  governing  principles  of  conduct. 
For  a  number  of  years  the  Earl  of  Hillsborough  was 
Secretary  of  State  for  America,  and  there  was  a  per- 
sistent, if  veiled,  war  between  him  and  the  colony 
agent.  Yet  in  Franklin's  journey  through  Ireland, 

"Being  in  Dublin,  at  the  same  time  with  his  Lordship,  I 
met  with  him  accidentally  at  the  Lord  Lieutenant's,  who  had 
happened  to  invite  us  to  dine  with  a  large  company  on  the 
same  day.  .  .  .  He  was  surprisingly  civil,  and  urged  my 
fellow-travellers  and  me  to  call  at  his  house  in  our  intended 
journey  northward,  where  we  might  be  sure  of  better  accom- 
modations than  the  inns  would  afford  us.  He  pressed  us  so 
politely  that  it  was  not  easy  to  refuse  without  apparent  rude- 
ness, as  we  must  pass  through  his  town,  Hillsborough,  and  by 
his  door  .  .  .  We  called  upon  him,  and  were  detained  at 
his  house  four  days,  during  which  time  he  entertained  us 
with  great  civility,  and  a  particular  attention  to  me,  that  ap- 
peared the  more  extraordinary,  as  I  knew  that  just  before  we 
left  London  he  had  expressed  himself  concerning  me  in  very 
angry  terms,  calling  me  a  republican,  a  factious,  mischievous 
fellow,  and  the  like.  .  .  .  He  seemed  attentive  to  every  thing 
that  might  make  my  stay  in  his  house  agreeable  to  me,  and 
put  his  eldest  son,  Lord  Killwarling,  into  his  phaeton  with  me, 
to  drive  me  a  round  of  forty  miles,  that  I  might  see  the 
country,  the  seats,  and  manufactures,  covering  me  with  his 
own  greatcoat,  lest  I  should  take  cold.  ...  All  which  I 

480 


SOCIAL    LIFE 

could  not  but  wonder  at.  ...  When  I  had  been  a  little  while 
returned  to  London,  I  waited  on  him  to  thank  him  for  his 
civilities  in  Ireland,  and  to  discourse  with  him  on  a  Georgia 
affair.  The  porter  told  me  he  was  not  at  home.  I  left  my 
card,  went  another  time,  and  received  the  same  answer, 
though  I  knew  he  was  at  home,  a  friend  of  mine  being  with 
him.  After  intermissions  of  a  week  each,  I  made  two  more 
visits,  and  received  the  same  answer.  The  last  time  was  on 
a  levee  day,  when  a  number  of  carriages  were  at  his  door. 
My  coachman  driving  up,  alighted,  and  was  opening  the 
coach  door,  when  the  porter,  seeing  me,  came  out  and  surlily 
chid  the  coachman  for  opening  the  door  before  he  had  in- 
quired whether  my  Lord  was  at  home ;  and  then  turning  to 
me,  said,  '  My  Lord  is  not  at  home.'  I  have  never  since  been 
nigh  him,  and  we  have  only  abused  one  another  at  a  distance." 

This  affront  Franklin  was  presently  able  to  revenge,  for 
he  drew  up  a  reply  to  a  report  of  the  secretary,  of  so 
convincing  a  character  that  the  ministry,  who  desired 
but  an  excuse  to  oust  Hillsborough  from  the  cabinet, 
availed  themselves  of  it  to  force  his  resignation.  Yet, 
though  the  earl  knew  of  this,  and  "  could  never  forgive 
me  for  writing  that  pamphlet,"  he  still  masqued  his  dis- 
like. 

"  I  went  down  to  Oxford  with  and  at  the  instance  of  Lord 
le  Desnencer,"  Franklin  relates,  "  who  is  on  all  occasions  very 
good  to  me,  and  seems  of  late  very  desirous  of  my  company 
.  .  .  That  same  day  Lord  Hillsborough  called  upon  Lord  le 
Despencer,  whose  chamber  and  mine  were  together  in  Queen's 
College.  I  was  in  the  inner  room  shifting,  and  heard  his 
voice,  but  did  not  see  him,  as  he  went  down  stairs  immediately 
with  Lord  le  Despencer,  who  mentioning  that  I  was  above, 
he  returned  directly  and  came  to  me  in  the  pleasantest  manner 
imaginable.  '  Dr.'  Franklin,'  said  he,  '  I  did  not  know  till  this 
minute  that  you  were  here,  and  I  am  come  back  to  make  you 
my  bow.  I  am  glad  to  see  you  at  Oxford,  and  that  you  look 
so  well,'  etc.  In  return  for  this  extravagance,  I  complimented 

481 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

him  on  his  son's  performance  in  the  theatre,  though  indeed  it 
was  but  indifferent,  so  that  account  was  settled.  For  as 
people  say,  when  they  are  angry,  If  he  strikes  we,  I'll  strike 
him  again;  I  think  sometimes  it  may  be  right  to  say,  If  he 
flatters  me,  I'll  flatter  him  again.  This  is  lex  talionis,  return- 
ing offences  in  kind.  .  .  .  My  quarrel  is  only  with  him,  who, 
of  all  the  men  I  ever  met  with,  is  surely  the  most  unequal  in 
his  treatment  of  people,  the  most  insincere,  and  the  most 
wrongheaded." 

The  whole  episode  serves  to  illustrate  two  of  Poor 
Richard's  worldly-wise  remarks:  "If  any  man  flatters 
me,  I  '11  flatter  him  again,  though  he  were  my  best 
friend,"  and  "  He  is  not  well  bred,  that  cannot  bear  Ill- 
Breeding  in  others."  It  also  throws  a  flood  of  light  on 
some  advice  the  Earl  of  Shelburne  (later  the  Marquis 
of  Lansdowne)  gave  the  English  negotiator  of  the  treaty 
of  1783.  "Some  people  in  this  country,"  he  warned 
him,  "  who  have  too  long  indulged  themselves  in  abus- 
ing every  thing  American,  have  been  pleased  to  circu- 
late an  opinion  that  Dr.  Franklin  is  a  very  cunning- 
man  ;  in  answer  to  which  I  have  remarked  to  Mr.  Os- 
wald :  '  Dr.  Franklin  knows  very  well  how  to  manage  a 
cunning  man  ;  but,  when  the  Doctor  converses  or  treats 
with  a  man  of  candor,  there  is  no  man  more  candid 
than  himself.'  " 

There  was,  too,  in  these  years  in  England  more  or 
less  intercourse  with  the  diplomatic  corps.  How  the 
French  ambassador  sought  him  out  has  been  elsewhere 
mentioned,  but  this  was  but  one  instance. 

"  Several  of  the  foreign  ambassadors,"  Franklin  remarked, 
"  have  assiduously  cultivated  my  acquaintance,  treating  me 
as  one  of  their  corps,  partly  I  believe  from  the  desire  they 
have,  from  time  to  time,  of  hearing  something  of  American 

482 


KARL  OF   H1LLSBOROUGH,    HY   FI.AXMA.N. 
From  a  medallion  in  possession  of  Sir  J.  Lximsden  Propert. 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

affairs,  an  object  become  of  importance  in  foreign  courts,  who 
begin  to  hope  Britain's  alarming  power  will  be  diminished  by 
the  defection  of  her  colonies ;  and  partly  that  they  may  have 
an  opportunity  of  introducing  me  to  the  gentlemen  of  their 
country  who  desire  it.  The  King,  too,  has  lately  been  heard 
to  speak  of  me  with  great  regard." 

Still  another  element  was  club  life,  not  of  the  kind 
now  termed  such,  for  institutions  which  have  made  it 
possible  had  not  then  come  into  existence.  It  was 
then  the  mode  for  men  to  gather  daily  or  weekly  at 
some  tavern  and  eat  a  dinner  together,  the  expense  for 
food  or  wine  being  "  clubbed,"  or  shared.  When  in 
France  his  letters  to  his  friends  in  London  often  refer 
to  a  club  he  frequented  while  in  England.  "  Please  to 
present  my  best  respects  to  our  good  old  friends  of  the 
London  Coffee-House,"  he  begged  one  correspondent. 
"  I  often  figure  to  myself  the  pleasure  I  should  have  in 
being  once  more  seated  among  them."  Again  he  re- 
quested :  "  Please  to  present  my  affectionate  respects  to 
that  honest,  sensible,  and  intelligent  society,  who  did 
me  so  long  the  honor  of  admitting  me  to  share  in  their 
instructive  conversations.  I  never  think  of  the  hours  I 
so  happily  spent  in  that  company,  without  regretting 
that  they  are  never  to  be  repeated."  "  I  often  think 
of  the  agreeable  evenings  I  used  to  pass  with  that  ex- 
cellent collection  of  good  men,"  he  told  one  of  the 
members,  "  the  club  at  the  London,  and  wish  to  be 
again  among  them.  Perhaps  I  may  pop  in  some  Thurs- 
day evening  when  they  least  expect  me."  One  letter 
he  ended  "  with  a  heartfelt  wish  to  embrace  you  once 
more,  and  enjoy  your  sweet  society  in  peace,  among 
our  honest,  worthy,  ingenious  friends  at  the  London." 

484 


SOCIAL    LIFE 

Nor  was  the  regard  one-sided,  for  a  member  informed 
him  that  "  The  honest  Whig  Club  drank  your  health 
very  affectionately." 

In  sailing  away  from  Great  Britain,  David  Hume 
assured  Franklin  that  "  I  am  very  sorry  that  you  intend 
soon  to  leave  our  hemisphere.  America  has  sent  us 
many  good  things,  gold,  silver,  sugar,  tobacco,  indigo, 
&c.  ,  but  you  are  the  first  philosopher,  and  indeed  the 
first  great  man  of  letters,  for  whom  we  are  beholden  to 
her.  It  is  our  own  fault  that  we  have  not  kept  him; 
whence  it  appears  that  we  do  not  agree  with  Solomon, 
that  wisdom  is  above  gold,  for  we  take  care  never  to 
send  back  an  ounce  of  the  latter  which  we  once  lay  our 
fingers  upon."  The  regret  was  quite  as  strong  on  the 
part  of  the  voyager,  for  in  departing  he  declared  that : 

"  I  fancy  I  feel  a  little  like  dying  saints,  who,  in  parting 
with  those  they  love  in  this  world,  are  only  comforted  with 
the  hope  of  more  perfect  happiness  in  the  next.  I  have, 
in  America,  connexions  of  the  most  engaging  kind ;  and, 
happy  as  I  have  been  in  the  friendships  here  contracted,  those 
promise  me  greater  and  more  lasting  felicity." 

"  Upon  the  whole,"  he  said  on  another  occasion,  "  I 
have  lived  so  great  a  part  of  my  life  in  Britain,  and 
have  formed  so  many  friendships  in  it,  that  I  love  it, 
and  sincerely  wish  it  prosperity ;  and  therefore  wish  to 
see  that  union,  on  which  alone  I  think  it  can  be  secured 
and  established."  As  in  his  circle  of  friends  in  Phila- 
delphia, he  outlived  the  most  of  his  intimates  in  Great 
Britain,  and  in  his  last  years  heard  with  grief  of  one 
more  break. 

485 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

"  The  departure  of  my  dearest  friend,  which  I  learn  from 
your  last  letter,  greatly  affects  me.  To  meet  her  once  more 
in  this  life  was  one  of  the  principal  motives  of  my  proposing 
to  visit  England  again,  before  my  return  to  America.  The 
last  year  carried  off  my  friends,  Dr.  Pringle,  Dr.  Fothergill, 
Lord  Kames,  and  Lord  le  Despencer.  This  has  begun  to 
take  away  the  rest,  and  strikes  the  hardest.  Thus  the  ties  I 
had  to  that  country,  and  indeed  to  the  world  in  general,  are 
loosened  one  by  one,  and  I  shall  soon  have  no  attachment 
left  to  make  me  unwilling  to  follow." 

It  was  in  France,  however,  that  his  greatest  social 
success  was  achieved.  Twice  while  in  Great  Britain 
as  a  colony  agent  he  had  made  trips  to  Paris,  and 
among  the  scientists  there  had  made  a  wide  circle  of 
friends  and  been  won  by  the  charm  of  the  people. 
"The  civilities  we  everywhere  receive,"  he  told  an 
English  friend,  "  give  us  the  strongest  impressions  of 
the  French  politeness.  It  seems  to  be  a  point  settled 
here  universally,  that  strangers  are  to  be  treated  with 
respect ;  and  one  has  just  the  same  deference  shown 
one  here  by  being  a  stranger,  as  in  England  by  being 
a  lady."  On  his  return  to  England,  he  could  not  but 
look  back  on  "  the  time  I  spent  in  Paris,  and  in  the 
improving  conversation  and  agreeable  society  of  so 
many  ingenious  and  learned  men,  [which]  seems  now 
to  me  like  a  pleasing  dream,  from  which  I  was  only  to 
be  awakened  by  finding  myself  at  London."  "Would 
to  God,"  he  exclaimed,  in  speaking  of  h's  intended 
return  to  America,  "  I  could  take  with  me  Messrs.  Du- 
pont,  Dubourg,  and  some  other  French  friends  with  their 
good  ladies!  I  might  then,  by  mixing  them  with  my 
friends  in  Philadelphia,  form  a  little  happy  society  that 
would  prevent  my  ever  wishing  again  to  visit  Europe." 

486 


SOCIAL   LIFE 

Nor  was  it  only  in  the  scientific  circles  that  he  made  ac- 
quaintances, and  the  fame  of  his  electrical  experiments 
even  secured  him  an  invitation  to  the  French  court. 

"  You  see,"  he  wrote  Miss  Stevenson,  "  I  speak  of  the 
Queen  as  if  I  had  seen  her ;  and  so  I  have,  for  you  must  know 
I  have  been  at  court.  We  went  to  Versailles  last  Sunday, 
and  had  the  honor  of  being  presented  to  the  King.  He 
spoke  to  both  of  us  very  graciously  and  very  cheerfully,  is  a 
handsome  man,  has  a  very  lively  look,  and  appears  younger 
than  he  is.  In  the  evening  we  were  at  the  Grand  Courerf, 
where  the  family  sup  in  public.  The  table  was  half  a  hollow 
square,  the  service  gold.  When  either  made  a  sign  for 
drink  the  word  was  given  by  one  of  the  waiters:  A  boire pour 
le  Roi,  or,  A  boire  four  la  Reine.  Then  two  persons  came 
from  within,  the  one  with  wine  and  the  other  with  water  in 
carafes.  Each  drank  a  little  glass  of  what  he  brought,  and 
then  put  both  the  carafes  with  a  glass  on  a  salver,  and  then 
presented  it.  Their  distance  from  each  other  was  such  as 
that  other  chairs  might  have  been  placed  between  any  two  of 
them.  An  officer  of  the  court  brought  us  up  through  the 
crowd  of  spectators,  and  placed  Sir  John  [Pringle]  so  as  to 
stand  between  the  Queen  and  Madame  Victoire.  The  King 
talked  a  good  deal  to  Sir  John,  asking  many  questions  about 
our  royal  family,  and  did  me,  too,  the  honor  of  taking  some 
notice  of  me ;  that  is  saying  enough." 

When  Franklin  came  to  France,  therefore,  as  a  com- 
missioner from  the  Continental  Congress,  it  was  to  a 
people  not  merely  eager  to  espouse  his  country's  cause, 
but  already  somewhat  acquainted  with  the  man.  From 
the  moment  he  landed,  and  before  it  was  even  known 
what  attitude  the  court  would  take  toward  him,  the 
lionizing  began.  A  welcoming  ball  was  given  him  at 
Nantes,  where  he  noted  that  "  there  were  no  [women's] 
heads  less  than  five,  and  a  few  were  seven  lengths  of 
the  face  above  the  top  of  the  forehead  "  ;  but  as  he 

487 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

journeyed  toward  Paris,  he  was  persuaded  to  pause 
long  enough  to  dine  at  the  Due  de  Rochefoucauld's, 
"  where  there  were  duchesses  and  a  countess,"  he  re- 
marked, "  no  head  higher  than  a  face  and  a  half.  So,  it 
seems,  the  farther  from  court  the  more  extravagant  the 
mode."  This  entertaining  was  forced  upon  him  before 
the  object  of  his  mission  was  divulged;  but  "I  find 
it  generally  supposed  here  that  I  am  sent  to  negotiate  ; 
and  that  opinion  appears  to  give  great  pleasure,  if  I  can 
judge  by  the  extreme  civilities  I  meet  with  from  num- 
bers of  the  principal  people  who  have  done  me  the 
honor  to  visit  me." 

Once  in  Paris,  although  not  openly  recognized  by  the 
court  in  his  diplomatic  capacity,  every  one  united  to 
show  him  honor  and  courtesy.  As  already  quoted,  he 
assured  his  sister  that  "  the  account  you  have  had  of 
the  vogue  I  am  in  here  has  some  truth  in  it.  Perhaps 
few  strangers  in  France  have  had  the  good  fortune  to 
be  so  universally  popular."  To  his  daughter  he  re- 
marked : 

"  The  clay  medallion  of  me  you  say  you  gave  to  Mr.  Hop- 
kinson  was  the  first  of  the  kind  made  in  France.  A  variety 
of  others  have  been  made  since  of  different  sizes ;  some  to  be 
set  in  the  lids  of  snuff-boxes,  and  some  so  small  as  to  be  worn 
in  rings ;  and  the  numbers  sold  are  incredible.  These,  with 
the  pictures,  busts,  and  prints  (of  which  copies  upon  copies 
are  spread  everywhere),  have  made  your  father's  face  as  well 
known  as  that  of  the  moon,  so  that  he  durst  not  do  any  thing 
that  would  oblige  him  to  run  away,  as  his  phiz  would  discover 
him  wherever  he  should  venture  to  show  it.  It  is  said  by 
learned  etymologists  that  the  name  doll,  for  the  images  chil- 
dren play  with,  is  derived  from  the  word  IDOL.  From  the  num- 
ber of  dolls  now  made  of  him,  he  may  be  truly  said,  /;/  that 
sense,  to  be  i-doll-ized  in  this  country." 

488 


SOCIAL    LIFE 

'Figure  me  in  your  mind,"  he  asked  a  friend,  "as 
jolly  as  formerly,  and  as  strong  and  hearty,  only  a  few 
years  older;  very  plainly  dressed,  wearing  my  thin, 


LOUIS  ALEX  ANDRE,    DUC   DK   LA   ROCHEFOUCAULD,    DEPUTY   FROM  THE 
CITY   OF   PARIS  TO  THE   NATIONAL  ASSEMBLY   IN    1789. 

From  a  drawing  by  J.  Guerin. 

gray,  straight  hair,  that  peeps  out  under  my  only  coif- 
fare,  a  fine  fur  cap,  which  comes  down  my  forehead 
almost  to  my  spectacles.  Think  how  this  must  appear 

489 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

among  the  powdered  heads  of  Paris!"  Yet  it  was  in 
vain  that  the  British  ambassador  sought  to  throw  ridicule 
on  the  new  envoy.  "  I  .  .  .  talk  of  him  in  a  Ludicrous 
Manner,  and  sometimes  say,  for  Instance,  that  the  effect 
of  his  Fur  Cap  seems  to  be  worn  out,  and  that  I  observe 
he  is  less  talked  of  since  the  arrival  of  Piccini,  the  famous 
Italian  Composer."  To  his  principal,  however,  he  told 
another  story :  "  That  Physician  du  Bourg,  whom  your 
Lordship  has  heard  of,  sent  Cards  all  over  Paris,  testi- 
fying to  his  acquaintance  the  arrival  of  Doctor  Franklin. 
I  have  already  observed  to  your  Lordship,  that  Num- 
bers of  People  resort  to  Him,  (Franklin),  but  there  are 
very  few  Persons  of  Condition  among  them."  Then, 
as  if  to  complete  the  "  Stormont,"  he  acknowledged 
that  from  the  first  the  Due  de  Choiseul  and  his  "  Party  " 
took  "  Franklin  by  the  Hand  "  and  "  openly  espouse 
the  cause  of  the  Rebels,"  and  that  the  newcomer  had 
formed  a  "  great  Intimacy  "  with  the  Due  de  Chartres. 
"  I  live  here  in  great  respect,"  Franklin  himself  said  to 
a  friend,  "  and  dine  every  day  with  great  folks ;  but  I 
still  long  for  home  and  for  repose,  and  should  be  happy 
to  eat  Indian  pudding  in  your  company,  and  under 
your  hospitable  roof."  When  John  Adams,  for  a  time 
his  fellow-commissioner,  joined  him  in  Paris  and  lived 
with  him,  he  shared  in  this  unending  hospitality,  and 
recorded  in  his  journal  that  "  Invitations  were  sent  to 
Dr.  Franklin  and  me,  every  day  in  the  week,  to  dine  in 
some  great  or  small  company."  A  complete  chronicle 
of  his  social  hours  would  be  impossible,  but  a  glimpse 
here  and  there  may  well  be  taken.  From  the  diary  of 
John  Adams  are  extracted  the  following,  to  show  some 

49° 


SOCIAL    LIFE 

of  the  entertainments   accepted   by   the  two   commis- 
sioners : 

"Dr.  Franklin  presented  to  me  the  compliments  of  M. 
Turgot,  late  comptroller  of  the  finance,  and  his  invitation  to 
dine  with  him.  Went  with  Dr.  Franklin  and  Mr.  Lee,  and 
dined  in  company  with  the  Duchess  d'Enville,  the  mother  of 
the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  and  twenty  of  the  great  people 
of  France." 

"  Dined  with  M.  Chalut,  one  of  the  farmers-general.  We 
were  shown  into  the  most  superb  gallery  that  I  have  yet  seen. 
The  paintings,  statues,  and  curiosities,  were  innumerable.  The 
old  Marshal  Richelieu  dined  there,  and  a  vast  number  of 
other  great  company.  After  dinner,  M.  Chalut  invited  Dr. 
Franklin  and  me  to  go  to  the  opera,  and  take  a  seat  in  his 
fagis.  We  did.  The  music  and  dancing  were  very  fine." 

"  Dined  at  home  with  a  great  deal  of  company.  Went 
after  dinner  to  see  the  Misanthrope  of  Moliere,  with  Mr. 
Amiel ;  it  was  followed  by  the  Heureusement." 

"  Dined  at  M.  Benin's,  the  Secretary  of  State,  at  his  seat 
in  the  country.  Dr.  Franklin,  his  grandson,  and  I,  rode  with 
Madame  Bertin,  the  niece  of  the  minister,  in  her  voiture  with 
four  horses." 

"  This  day  I  had  the  honor  to  dine  with  the  Prince  de 
Tingry,  Due  de  Beaumont,  of  the  illustrious  house  of  Mont- 
morency." 

"  [Went  to]  the  Concert  Spirituel ...  in  the  Royal  Garden, 
where  was  an  infinite  number  of  gentlemen  and  ladies  walk- 
ing. Dined  with  the  Duchess  d'Enville,  at  her  house,  with 
her  daughter  and  grand-daughter,  dukes,  abbots,  &c.  &c.  &c." 

"  Dined  with  the  Marshal  de  Maillebois,  with  a  great  deal 
of  company.  Here  also  we  were  shown  the  marshal's  amic, 
seated  at  the  table  with  all  his  great  company.  ...  I  could 
say  but  little,  but  I  understood  her  as  well  as  any  one  I  had 
heard  in  French.  It  appeared  to  me  that  the  marshal  had 
chosen  her  rather  for  her  wit  and  sense,  than  personal  charms." 

"  Dined  with  the  Marshal  de  Mouchy,  with  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  d'Ayen,  their  daughter,  the  Marquise  de  Lafayette, 

49' 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

the  Viscountess  de  Maillebois,  her  sister,  another  sister  un- 
married, the  Prussian  ambassador,  an  Italian  ambassador, 
and  a  great  deal  of  other  great  company." 

One  offset  there  was  to  the  complete  enjoyment  of 
dining  out,  for,  groaning  at  the  innumerable  applications 
of  officers  to  him  for  employment,  Franklin  complained 
that  "  I  am  afraid  to  accept  an  invitation  to  dine  abroad, 
being  almost  sure  of  meeting  with  some  officer  or 
officer's  friend,  who,  as  soon  as  I  am  put  in  good 
humour  by  a  glass  or  two  of  champagne,  begins  his 
attack  upon  me." 

Until  France  recognized  American  independence  the 
negotiators  could  not  be  received  at  court  or  by  the  min- 
istry ;  but  once  the  treaty  of  amity  and  commerce  was 
signed,  they  became  fully  recognized  diplomatic  agents, 
and  the  hitherto  closed  official  doors  were  thrown  open 
to  them.  The  whole  court,  at  the  first  function  Frank- 
lin attended,  united  to  heap  attention  and  distinction 
upon  him,  and  from  that  time,  as  if  to  make  up  for  the 
brief  period  of  non-recognition,  he  was  shown  the  ut- 
most honor,  being  bidden  to  the  greatest  and  most 
exclusive  affairs,  even  to  those  given  to  royalty  itself. 
He  describes  an  opera  given  to  a  royal  prince,  at  which 
he  was  present,  where,  "  The  house  being  richly  fin- 
ished with  abundance  of  carving  and  gilding,  well  illu- 
minated with  wax  tapers,  and  the  company  all  superbly 
dressed,  many  of  the  men  in  cloth  of  tissue,  and  the 
ladies  sparkling  with  diamonds,  formed  altogether  the 
most  splendid  spectacle  my  eyes  ever  beheld."  In 
Adams's  diary  is  a  reference  to  one  ministerial  dinner 
they  went  to,  given  by  Vergennes :  "There  was  a  full 

492 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

table;  no  ladies  but  the  Countess.  The  Count's  bro- 
ther, the  ambassador  who  lately  signed  the  treaty  with 
Switzerland,  Mr.  Gamier,  the  late  Secretary  to  the  Em- 
bassy in  England,  and  many  others, — dukes,  and  bish- 
ops, and  counts,  &c." 

All  these  courtesies  involved  recognition,  and  Frank- 
lin seems  to  have  been,  when  able,  fairly  regardful  of 
his  social  duties.  For  only  a  few  weeks  of  his  many 
years  in  Paris  does  he  seem  to  have  kept  a  diary,  but 
that  little  reveals  him  as  doing  conscientiously  the  re- 
quired courtesies.  One  afternoon's  doings  will  suffice : 
"Went  to  Paris  to  visit  Princess  Daschkaw;  not  at 
home.  Visit  Prince  and  Princess  Masserano.  .  .  . 
Visit  Duke  de  Rochefoucauld  and  Madame  la  Duchesse 
d'Enville.  Visit  Messrs.  Dana  and  Searle  ;  not  at  home. 
Leave  invitations  to  dine  with  me  on  Sunday.  Visit 
Comte  d'Estaing;  not  at  home.  Mr.  Turgot ;  not  at 
home." 

In  one  respect  he  refused  to  go  through  the  conven- 
tional forms.  Although  the  recognition  of  the  United 
States  gave  Franklin  full  diplomatic  status  with  the 
French  court,  his  fellow-ambassadors,  whose  govern- 
ments had  not  yet  acknowledged  the  new  country,  nec- 
essarily could  not  accept  him  as  one  of  their  corps.  By 
"good  luck"  the  American  minister  heard  that  they  had 
come  to  the  decision  not  to  "  return  the  visits  I  should 
make  them  (as  they  supposed)  wrhen  I  was  first  received 
here  as  Minister  Plenipotentiary,  and  disappointed  their 
project  by  visiting  none  of  them.  In  my  private  opin- 
ion, the  first  civility  is  due  from  the  old  resident  to  the 
stranger  and  new-comer.  My  opinion,  indeed,  is  good 

494 


SOCIAL    LIFE 

for  nothing  against  custom,  which  I  should  have  obeyed, 
but  for  the  circumstances,  that  rendered  it  more  pru- 
dent to  avoid  disputes  and  affronts,  though  at  the  hazard 
of  being  thought  rude  or  singular." 

Out  of  this  anomalous  situation  came  an  incident 
"  ridiculous  enough,"  which  caused  the  envoy  not  a 
little  amusement,  and  which  he  narrated  as  follows  : 

"  The  Count  du  Norcl,  who  is  son  of  the  Empress  of 
Russia,  arriving  at  Paris,  ordered,  it  seems,  cards  of  visit  to 
be  sent  to  all  the  foreign  ministers.  One  of  them,  on  which 
was  written,  '  Lc  Comte  du  Nord  et  Ic  Prince  Bariatinski  J  was 
brought  to  me.  It  was  on  Monday  evening  last.  Being  at 
court  the  next  day,  I  inquired  of  an  old  minister,  my  friend, 
what  was  the  etiquette,  and  whether  the  Count  received  visits. 
The  answer  was:  '  Nou;  on  se  fait  ecrirc;  voila  tout?  This 
is  done  by  passing  the  door  and  ordering  your  name  to  be 
written  on  the  porter's  book.  Accordingly,  on  Wednesday 
I  passed  the  house  of  Prince  Bariatinski,  Ambassador  of 
Russia,  where  the  Count  lodged,  and  left  my  name  on  the  list 
of  each.  1  thought  no  more  of  the  matter ;  but  this  day, 
May  the  24th,  comes  the  servant  who  brought  the  card,  in 
great  affliction,  saying  he  was  like  to  be  ruined  by  his  mistake 
in  bringing  the  card  here,  and  wishing  to  obtain  from  me 
some  paper,  of  I  know  not  what  kind,  for  I  did  not  see  him. 

"  In  the  afternoon  came  my  friend,  M.  Le  Roy,  who  is  also 
the  friend  of  the  Prince's,  telling  me  how  much  he,  the  Prince, 
was  concerned  at  the  accident,  that  both  himself  and  the 
Count  had  great  personal  regard  for  me  and  my  character, 
but  that,  our  independence  not  yet  being  acknowledged  by 
the  court  of  Russia,  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  permit  him- 
self to  make  me  a  visit  as  minister.  I  told  M.  Le  Roy  it  was 
not  my  custom  to  seek  such  honors,  though  I  was  very  sensible 
of  them  when  conferred  upon  me ;  that  I  should  not  have 
voluntarily  intruded  a  visit,  and  that,  in  this  case,  I  had  only 
done  what  I  was  informed  the  etiquette  required  of  me ;  but 
if  it  would  be  attended  with  any  inconvenience  to  Prince 
Bariatinski,  whom  I  much  esteemed  and  respected,  I  thought 

495 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

the  remedy  was  easy ;  he  had  only  to  erase  my  name  out  of 
his  book  of  visits  received,  and  I  would  burn  their  card." 

The  offer  was  accepted,  and  the  nameless  danger 
thus  avoided.  At  the  next  attendance  at  court  Frank- 
lin noted  that  the  prince  "  was  particularly  civil  to  me, 
.  .  .  apologised  for  what  passed  relating  to  the  visit, 
expressed  himself  extremely  sensible  of  my  friendship 
in  covering  the  affair,  which  might  have  occasioned  him 
very  disagreeable  consequences." 

A  diplomatic  entanglement  of  much  the  same  char- 
acter, though  of  very  different  conclusion,  occurred 
when  the  Emperor  Joseph  of  Austria  came  to  Paris 
in  1777.  He  earnestly  desired  to  make  Franklin's  ac- 
quaintance, but  without  giving  it  any  political  signifi- 
cance. The  minister  of  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany 
accordingly  wrote  the  famous  American  : 

"  L'abbe  Xiccole  prie  Monsieur  franklin  de  lui  faire  1'hon- 
neur  de  venir  dejeuner  ches  luy  Mercredy  matin  28  de  ce 
mois  a  9  heures  du  matin.  II  luy  donnera  line  bonne  tasse 
de  chocolat." 

Verbally  he  informed  Franklin  that  the  "  intention 
.  .  .  was  to  give  the  Emperor  an  opportunity  of  an 
interview  with  "  him,  but,  owing  to  an  accident,  this 
meeting  did  not  take  place.  Eventually  they  were 
brought  together,  and  Jefferson  relates  something  con- 
cerning one  of  their  encounters  : 

"  When  Dr.  Franklin  went  to  France,  on  his  revolutionary 
mission,  his  eminence  as  a  philosopher,  his  venerable  appear- 
ance, and  the  cause  on  which  he  was  sent,  rendered  him  ex- 
tremely popular,  for  all  ranks  and  conditions  of  men  there 
entered  warmly  into  the  American  interest.  He  was,  there- 

496 


SOCIAL   LIFE 

fore,  feasted  and  invited  to  all  the  court  parties.  At  these  he 
sometimes  met  the  old  Duchess  of  Bourbon,  who,  being  a 
chess  player  of  about  his  force,  they  very  generally  played 
together.  Happening  once  to  put  her  king  into  prize,  the 
Doctor  took  it.  '  Ah,'  says  she,  '  we  do  not  take  kings  so.' 
'  We  do  in  America,'  said  the  Doctor.  At  one  of  these 
parties  the  emperor  Joseph  II.  then  at  Paris,  incog.,  under  the 
title  of  Count  Falkenstein,  was  overlooking  the  game  in  silence, 
while  the  company  was  engaged  in  animated  conversations  on 
the  American  question.  '  How  happens  it,  M.  le  Comte,'  said 
the  Duchess,  '  that  while  we  all  feel  so  much  interest  in  the 
cause  of  the  Americans,  you  say  nothing  for  them  ?  '  'I  am 
a  king  by  trade,'  said  he." 

With  pardonable  pride  the  self-made  man,  speaking 
of  his  father's  having,  "  among  his  instructions  to  me 
when  a  boy,  frequently  repeated  a  proverb  of  Solomon, 
'  Seest  thou  a  man  diligent  in  his  calling,  he  shall  stand 
before  kings,  he  shall  not  stand  before  mean  men,'  "  re- 
marked that  "  I  did  not  think  that  I  should  ever  literally 
stand  before  kings,  which,  however,  has  since  happened  ; 
for  I  have  stood  before  five,  and  even  had  the  honor  of 
sitting  down  with  one,  the  King  of  Denmark,  to  dinner." 
Greatly  in  demand  as  the  minister  was  for  formal 
entertaining,  there  was  as  well  a  vie  intime,  which  has 
been  more  or  less  referred  to  already,  and  which  his 
recurrent  attacks  of  the  gout  tended  to  foster.  Of  this 
life  he  has  left  a  pleasant  picture  in  his  "  Dialogue  with 
the  Gout,"  in  which  the  disease  accuses  him  of  the 
following  conduct: 

"  GOUT.  Let  us  examine  your  course  of  life.  While  the 
mornings  are  long,  and  you  have  leisure  to  go  abroad,  what 
do  you  do?  Why,  instead  of  gaining  an  appetite  for  break- 
fast, by  salutary  exercise,  you  amuse  yourself  with  books, 
pamphlets,  or  newspapers,  which  commonly  are  not  worth  the 

32  497 


ontieur, 


nc    <vcrra    point 
'du  mow,   oAb 
&-  ti  Zfainwtret 


Ie6 


t)c'ctct<xiro    otdukuto    on 
«/lot ,   co  ut   c<ni8uito 


FRANKLIN'S  NOTICE  CONCERNING  THE  FRENCH  COURT. 

From  the  original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 


SOCIAL   LIFE 

reading.  Yet  you  eat  an  inordinate  breakfast,  four  dishes  of 
tea,  with  cream,  and  one  or  two  buttered  toasts,  with  slices  of 
hung  beef,  which  I  fancy  are  not  things  the  most  easily 
digested.  Immediately  afterward  you  sit  down  to  write  at 
your  desk,  or  converse  with  persons  who  apply  to  you  on 
business.  Thus  the  time  passes  till  one,  without  any  kind  of 
bodily  exercise.  But  all  this  I  could  pardon,  in  regard,  as 
you  say,  to  your  sedentary  condition.  But  what  is  your 
practice  after  dinner?  Walking  in  the  beautiful  gardens  of 
those  friends  with  whom  you  have  dined,  would  be  the  choice 
of  men  of  sense :  yours  is,  to  be  fixed  down  to  chess,  where 
you  are  found  engaged  for  two  or  three  hours!  This  is  your 
perpetual  recreation,  which  is  the  least  eligible  of  any  for  a 
sedentary  man,  because,  instead  of  accelerating  the  motion 
of  the  fluids,  the  rigid  attention  it  requires  helps  to  retard  the 
circulation  and  obstruct  internal  secretions.  Wrapt  in  the 
speculations  of  this  wretched  game,  you  destroy  your  consti- 
tution. What  can  be  expected  from  such  a  course  of  living, 
but  a  body  replete  with  stagnant  humors,  ready  to  fall  a  prey 
to  all  kinds  of  dangerous  maladies,  if  I,  the  gout,  did  not 
occasionally  bring  you  relief  by  agitating  these  humors,  and  so 
purifying  or  dissipating  them  ?  If  it  was  in  some  nook  or 
alley  in  Paris,  deprived  of  walks,  that  you  played  awhile  at 
chess  after  dinner,  this  might  be  excusable  ;  but  the  same  taste 
prevails  with  you  in  Passy,  Auteuil,  Montmartre,  or  Sanoy, 
places  where  there  are  the  finest  gardens  and  walks,  a  pure 
air,  beautiful  women,  and  most  agreeable  and  instructive  con- 
versation ;  all  which  you  might  enjoy  by  frequenting  the 
walks.  But  these  are  rejected  for  this  abominable  game  of 
chess.  Fie,  then,  Mr.  Franklin!  But  amidst  my  instruc- 
tions, I  had  almost  forgot  to  administer  my  wholesome  cor- 
rections: so  take  that  twinge — and  that. 

"FRANKLIN.  Oh!  Eh!  Oh!  Ohhh!  As  much  instructions 
as  you  please,  Madam  Gout,  and  as  many  reproaches ;  but 
pray,  Madam,  a  truce  with  your  corrections!  .  .  . 

"  GOUT.  Do  you  remember  how  often  you  have  promised 
yourself,  the  following  morning,  a  walk  in  the  grove  of 
Boulogne,  in  the  garden  de  la  Muette,  or  in  your  own  garden, 
and  have  violated  your  promise,  alleging,  at  one  time,  it  was 
too  cold,  at  another  too  warm,  too  windy,  too  moist,  or  what 

499 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

else  you  pleased ;  when  in  truth  it  was  too  nothing,  but  your 
insuperable  love  of  ease? 

"  FRANKLIN.  That  I  confess  may  have  happened  occasion- 
ally, probably  ten  times  in  a  year. 

41  GOUT.  Your  confession  is  very  far  short  of  the  truth  ;  the 
gross  amount  is  one  hundred  and  ninety-nine  times. 

"  FRANKLIN.    Is  it  possible? 

"  GOUT.  So  possible  that  it  is  fact ;  you  may  rely  on  the 
accuracy  of  my  statement.  You  know  Mr.  Brillon's  gardens, 
and  what  fine  walks  they  contain :  you  know  the  handsome 
flight  of  an  hundred  steps,  which  lead  from  the  terrace  above 
to  the  lawn  below.  You  have  been  in  the  practice  of  visiting 
this  amiable  family  twice  a-week  after  dinner,  and  as  it  is  a 
maxim  of  your  own,  that  '  a  man  may  take  as  much  exercise 
in  walking  a  mile  up  and  down  stairs,  as  in  ten  on  level 
ground,'  what  an  opportunity  was  here  for  you  to  have  had 
exercise  in  both  these  ways!  Did  you  embrace  it,  and  how 
often? 

"FRANKLIN.    I  cannot  immediately  answer  that  question. 

"  GOUT.    I  will  do  it  for  you ;  not  once. 

"FRANKLIN.    Not  once? 

"  GOUT.  Even  so.  During  the  summer  you  went  there  at 
six  o'clock.  You  found  the  charming  lady,  with  her  lovely 
children  and  friends,  eager  to  walk  with  you,  and  entertain  you 
with  their  agreeable  conversation ;  and  what  has  been  your 
choice?  Why,  to  sit  on  the  terrace,  satisfying  yourself  with 
the  fine  prospect,  and  passing  your  eye  over  the  beauties  of 
the  garden  below,  without  taking  one  step  to  descend  and 
walk  about  in  them.  On  the  contrary,  you  call  for  tea  and 
the  chess-board;  and  lo!  you  are  occupied  in  your  seat  till 
nine  o'clock,  and  that  besides  two  hours'  play  after  dinner; 
and  then,  instead  of  walking  home,  which  would  have  be- 
stirred you  a  little,  you  step  into  your  carriage.  How  absurd 
to  suppose  that  all  this  carelessness  can  be  reconcilable  with 
health,  without  my  interposition! 

"  FRANKLIN.  I  am  convinced  now  of  the  justness  of  Poor 
Richard's  remark,  that  '  Our  debts  and  our  sins  are  always 
greater  than  we  think  for.'  " 

It  was  in  Paris,  or  rather  in  the  suburb  of  Passy,  that 

900 


SOCIAL   LIFE 

for  the  first  time  Franklin  was  situated  so  as  to  enter- 
tain. John  Adams,  who  lived  for  a  time  with  him, 
describes  the  place :  "  I  determined  to  put  my  country 
to  no  further  expense  on  my  account,  but  to  take  my 
lodgings  under  the  same  roof  with  Dr.  Franklin,  and 
to  use  no  other  equipage  than  his,  if  I  could  avoid  it. 
This  house  was  called  the  Basse  cour  de  Monsieur  Le 
Ray  de  Chaumont,  which  was,  to  be  sure,  not  a  title  of 
great  dignity  for  the  mansion  of  ambassadors,  though 
they  were  no  more  than  American  ambassadors. 
Nevertheless,  it  had  been  nothing  less  than  the  famous 
Hotel  de  Valentinois,  with  a  motto  on  the  door,  '  Se 
sta  bene,  non  si  muove.' '  From  an  Englishman,  who 
came  to  the  minister  with  a  letter  of  introduction,  it  is 
further  learned  that  "  His  house  was  delightfully  situ- 
ated, and  seems  very  spacious ;  and  he  seemed  to  have 
a  great  number  of  domestics.  We  sent  up  the  letter, 
and  were  then  shown  up  into  his  bedchamber,  where  he 
sat  in  his  nightgown,  his  feet  wrapped  up  in  flannels 
and  resting  on  a  pillow,  he  having  for  three  or  four 
days  been  much  afflicted  with  the  gout  and  the  gravel." 
Franklin  himself,  in  answer  to  a  question  from  a  cor- 
respondent, said  :  "  You  wish  to  know  how  I  live.  It  is 
in  a  fine  house,  situated  in  a  neat  village,  on  high 
ground,  half  a  mile  from  Paris,  with  a  large  garden  to 
walk  in.  I  have  abundance  of  acquaintance,  dine 
abroad  six  days  in  seven.  Sundays  I  reserve  to  dine 
at  home,  with  such  Americans  as  pass  this  way,  and 
I  then  have  my  grandson  Ben,  with  some  other  Ameri- 
can children  from  the  school." 

In  Miss  Adams's  journal  are  brief  accounts  of  two 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

of  these  dinners:  "To-day  we  have  dined  with  Dr. 
Franklin,"  she  wrote  of  one;  "  there  was  a  large  com- 
pany :  our  family,  the  Marquis  de  la  Fayette  and  lady, 
Lord  Mount  Morris,  an  Irish  volunteer,  Dr.  Jeffries,  Mr. 
Paul  Jones  .  .  .  We  had  a  sumptuous  dinner."  Of  the 
second  she  said:  "  Dined  to-day  at  Dr.  Franklin's;  the 


DINNER   INVITATION   OF  LAFAYETTE  TO   FRANKLIN. 
From  the  original  in  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia. 

whole  company  were  Americans,  except  an  old   man, 
Monsieur  Brillon,  who  is  a  friend  of  the  Dr.,  and  who 
came  as  he  said,  '  a  demander  un  dine  a  Pere  Franklin.' ' 
A  description  of  yet  a  third  of  these  dinners  has  been 
preserved  by  Jefferson  : 

"The  Doctor  .  .  .  had  a  party  to  dine  with  him  one  day 
at  Passy,  of  whom  one  half  were  Americans,  the  other  half 
French,  and  among  the  last  was  the  Abbe  [Raynal].  During 

502 


SOCIAL   LIFE 

the  dinner  he  got  on  his  favorite  theory  of  the  degeneracy  of 
animals,  and  even  of  man,  in  America,  and  urged  it  with  his 
usual  eloquence.  The  Doctor  at  length  noticing  the  acci- 
dental stature  and  position  of  his  guests,  at  table,  '  Come,' 
says  he,  '  M.  1'Abbe,  let  us  try  this  question  by  the  fact 
before  us.  We  are  here  one  half  Americans,  and  one  half 
French,  and  it  happens  that  the  Americans  have  placed  them- 
selves on  one  side  of  the  table,  and  our  French  friends  are 
on  the  other.  Let  both  parties  rise,  and  we  will  see  on  which 
side  nature  has  degenerated.'  It  happened  that  his  American 
guests  were  Carmichael,  Harmer,  Humphreys,  and  others  of 
the  finest  stature  and  form  ;  while  those  of  the  other  side  were 
remarkably  diminutive,  and  the  Abbe  himself,  particularly,  was 
a  mere  shrimp.  He  parried  the  appeal,  however,  by  a  com- 
plimentary admission  of  exceptions,  among  which  the  Doctor 
himself  was  a  conspicuous  one." 

This  open  hospitality  excited  some  criticism  in 
America,  and  Franklin  was  warned  that  "  Our  too 
liberal  entertainment  of  our  countrymen  here  has  been 
reported  at  home  by  our  guests,  and  has  given  offence." 
"  They  must  be  contented  for  the  future,"  he  therefore 
said,  "  as  I  am,  with  plain  beef  and  pudding.  The 
readers  of  Connecticut  newspapers  ought  not  to  be 
troubled  with  any  more  accounts  of  our  extravagance. 
For  my  own  part,  if  I  could  sit  down  to  dinner  on 
a  piece  of  their  excellent  salt  pork  and  pumpkin,  I 
would  not  give  a  farthing  for  all  the  luxuries  of  Paris." 
Apparently  the  decision  was  to  his  physical,  if  not  to 
his  jovial,  advantage,  for  John  Adams  mentions  that 
"  Franklin  has  broke  up  the  practice  of  inviting  every- 
body to  dine  with  him  on  Sunday,  at  Passy ;  [and] 
he  is  getting  better;  the  gout  left  him  weak;  but  he 
begins  to  sit  at  table."  An  amusing  contrast  to  one  of 
the  great  dinners  that  Franklin  and  Adams  attended  is 

J°3 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

supplied  by  Adams,  who  records  that  he  "  came  home 
and  supped  with  Dr.  Franklin  on  cheese  and  beer." 

Franklin's  rules  of  conduct  in  society  were  well  fitted 
to  make  him  popular. 

"  The  Wit  of  Conversation,"  he  remarked,  "  consists  more  in 
finding  it  in  others,  than  shewing  a  great  deal  yourself.  He 
who  goes  out  of  your  Company  pleased  with  his  own  Face- 
tiousness  and  Ingenuity,  will  the  sooner  come  into  it  again. 
Most  men  had  rather  please  than  admire  you,  and  seek  less  to 
be  instructed  and  diverted,  than  approved  and  applauded,  and  it 
is  certainly  the  most  delicate  Sort  of  Pleasure,  to  please  another." 

"The  great  secret  of  succeeding  in  conversation,"  he 
said  on  another  occasion,  "  is  to  admire  little,  to  hear 
much ;  always  to  distrust  our  own  reason,  and  sjome- 
times  that  of  our  friends;  never  to  pretend  to  wit,  but 
to  make  that  of  others  appear  as  much  as  possibly  we 
can;  to  hearken  to  what  is  said,  and  to  answer  to  the 
purpose."  In  one  of  his  bagatelles,  "The  Handsome 
and  the  Deformed  Leg,"  he  described  the  "  two  sorts  of 
people  in  the  world,  who,  with  equal  degrees  of  health 
and  wealth,  become,  the  one  happy,  and  the  other 
miserable,"  and  the  need  society  has  for  protecting 
itself  from  the  latter  class. 

"An  old  philosophical  friend  of  mine  was  grown,"  lie 
declared,  "  from  experience,  very  cautious  in  this  particular, 
and  carefully  avoided  any  intimacy  with  such  people.  He 
had,  like  other  philosophers,  a  thermometer  to  show  him  the 
heat  of  the  weather,  and  a  barometer  to  mark  when  it  was 
likely  to  prove  good  or  bad ;  but  there  being  no  instrument 
invented  to  discover,  at  first  sight,  this  unpleasing  disposition 
in  a  person,  he  for  that  purpose  made  use  of  his  legs,  one  of 
which  was  remarkably  handsome,  the  other,  by  some  accident, 
crooked  and  deformed.  If  a  stranger,  at  the  first  interview, 

504 


SOCIAL   LIFE 

regarded  his  ugly  leg  more  than  his  handsome  one,  he 
doubted  him.  If  he  spoke  of  it,  and  took  no  notice  of  the 
handsome  leg,  that  was  sufficient  to  determine  my  philosopher 
to  have  no  further  acquaintance  with  him.  Everybody  has 
not  this  two-legged  instrument ;  but  every  one,  with  a  little 
attention,  may  observe  signs  of  that  carping,  fault-finding  dis- 
position, and  take  the  same  resolution  of  avoiding  the  ac- 
quaintance of  those  infected  with  it." 

"  It  was  one  of  the  rules  which,  above  all  others,  made 
Dr.  Franklin  the  most  amiable  of  men  in  society," 
Jefferson  related,  "'never  to  contradict  anybody.'  If 
he  was  urged  to  announce  an  opinion,  he  did  it  rather 
by  asking  questions,  as  if  for  information,  or  by  sug- 
gesting doubts."  "  He  was  friendly  and  agreeable  in 
conversation,"  Miss  Logan  states,  "  which  he  suited  to 
his  company,  appearing  to  wish  to  benefit  his  hearers. 
I  could  readily  believe  that  he  heard  nothing  of  conse- 
quence himself  but  what  he  turned  to  the  account  he 
desired,  and  in  his  turn  profited  by  the  conversation  of 
others."  It  is  little  wonder  that  an  eye-witness  re- 
ports that  "  When  he  left  Passy,  it  seemed  as  if  the 
village  had  lost  its  patriarch."  Nor  was  the  break  felt 
on  one  side  alone,  and  Franklin  wrote  from  America 
that  he  could  not  "  forget  Paris,  and  the  nine  years' 
happiness  I  enjoyed  there,  in  the  sweet  society  of  a 
people  whose  conversation  is  instructive,  whose  manners 
are  highly  pleasing,  and  who,  above  all  the  nations  of 
the  world,  have,  in  the  greatest  perfection,  the  art  of 
making  themselves  beloved  by  strangers.  And  now, 
even  in  my  sleep,  I  find  that  the  scenes  of  all  my  pleas- 
ant dreams  are  laid  in  that  city,  or  in  its  neighborhood." 
Manasseh  Cutler,  who  called  upon  Franklin  in  his 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

Philadelphia  home  in  1787,  draws  a  pleasant  picture  of 
his  last  years.  "  Dr.  Franklin  lives  in  Market  Street," 
he  states,  "  between  Second  and  Third  Streets,  but 
his  house  stands  up  a  court-yard  at  some  distance  from 
the  street.  We  found  him  in  his  Garden,  sitting  upon 
a  grass  plat  under  a  very  large  Mulberry,  with  several 
other  gentlemen  and  two  or  three  ladies.  There  was 
no  curiosity  in  Philadelphia  which  I  felt  so  anxious  to 
see  as  this  great  man,  who  has  been  the  wonder  cf 
Europe  as  well  as  the  glory  of  America.  But  a  man 
who  stood  first  in  the  literary  world,  and  had  spent  so 
many  years  in  the  Courts  of  Kings,  particularly  in  the 
refined  Court  of  France,  I  conceived  would  not  be  of 
very  easy  access,  and  must  certainly  have  much  of  the 
air  of  grandeur  and  majesty  about  him.  Common  folks 
must  expect  only  to  gaze  at  him  at  a  distance,  and 
answer  such  questions  as  he  might  please  to  ask.  In 
short,  when  I  entered  his  house,  I  felt  as  if  I  was  going 
to  be  introduced  to  the  presence  of  an  European 
Monarch.  But  how  were  my  ideas  changed,  when  I 
saw  a  short,  fat,  trunchecl  old  man,  in  a  plain  Quaker 
dress,  bald  pate,  and  short  white  locks,  sitting  without 
his  hat  under  the  tree,  and,  as  Mr.  Gerry  introduced  me, 
rose  from  his  chair,  took  me  by  the  hand,  expressed  his 
joy  to  see  me,  welcomed  me  to  the  city,  and  begged  me 
to  seat  myself  close  to  him.  His  voice  was  low,  but  his 
countenance  open,  frank,  and  pleasing.  He  instantly 
reminded  me  of  old  Captain  Cummings,  for  he  is  nearly 
of  his  pitch,  and  no  more  of  the  air  of  superiority  about 
him.  I  delivered  him  my  letters.  After  he  had  read 
them,  he  took  me  again  by  the  hand,  and,  with  the 

506 


THE   MANY-SIDED   FRANKLIN 

usual  compliments,  introduced  me  to  the  other  gentle- 
men of  the  company,  who  were  most  of  them  members 
of  the  Convention.  Here  we  entered  into  a  free  con- 
versation, and  spent  our  time  most  agreeably  until  it 
was  dark.  The  tea-table  was  spread  under  the  tree, 
and  Mrs.  Bache,  a  very  gross  and  rather  homely  lady, 
who  is  the  only  daughter  of  the  Doctor  and  lives  with 
him,  served  it  out  to  the  company.  She  had  three  of 
her  children  about  her,  over  whom  she  seemed  to  have 
no  kind  of  command,  but  who  appeared  to  be  exces- 
sively fond  of  their  Grandpapa." 

Franklin  himself  has  left  an  equally  pleasant  descrip- 
tion of  this  closing  period  of  his  life : 

"  I  have  found  my  family  here  in  health,  good  circum- 
stances, and  well  respected  by  their  fellow-citizens.  The 
companions  of  my  youth  are  indeed  almost  all  departed,  but  I 
find  an  agreeable  society  among  their  children  and  grand- 
children. I  have  public  business  enough  to  preserve  me 
from  enmii,  and  private  amusement  besides  in  conversation, 
books,  my  garden,  and  cribbage.  Considering  our  well- 
furnished,  plentiful  market  as  the  best  of  gardens,  I  am  turn- 
ing mine,  in  the  midst  of  which  my  house  stands,  into  grass 
plots  and  gravel  walks,  with  trees  and  flowering  shrubs. 
Cards  we  sometimes  play  here,  in  long  winter  evenings ;  but 
it  is  as  [in  France]  they  play  at  chess,  not  for  money,  but  for 
honor,  or  the  pleasure  of  beating  one  another.  This  will  not 
be  quite  a  novelty  to  you,  as  you  may  remember  we  played 
together  in  that  manner  during  the  winter  at  Passy.  I  have 
indeed  now  and  then  a  little  compunction  in  reflecting  that  I 
spend  time  so  idly ;  but  another  reflection  comes  to  relieve 
me,  whispering :  '  You  know  that  the  soul  is  immortal;  why 
then  should  you  be  such  a  niggard  of  a  little  time,  when  you 
have  a  whole  eternity  before  you?  '  So,  being  easily  convinced, 
and,  like  other  reasonable  creatures,  satisfied  with  a  small 
reason,  when  it  is  in  favor  of  doing  what  I  have  a  mind  to,  I 
shuffle  the  cards  again,  and  begin  another  game." 

908 


SOCIAL    LIFE 

To  a  friend  he  wrote:  "We  loved  and  still  love  one 
another ;  we  are  grown  gray  together,  and  yet  it  is  too 
early  to  part.  Let  us  sit  till  the  evening  of  life  is  spent. 
The  last  hours  are  always  the  most  joyous.  When  we 
can  stay  no  longer,  it  is  time  enough  then  to  bid  each 
other  good  night,  separate,  and  go  quietly  to  bed." 


FRANKLIN  BURIAL  PLOT  IN   CHRIST  CHURCH  CEME 
TKRY,   PHILADELPHIA. 


509 


INDEX 


Abolition  society,  322 

Academy,  French,  Franklin's  mistake  at 
meeting  of  the,  122 

Adams,  Miss  Abigail,  quoted,  292,  294, 
297,  307,  413,  502 

John,  quoted,  59, 83,  85,  88,  303,  373, 

503  ;  anecdotes  of  Franklin  related  by,  45, 
242;  characterizes  Franklin,  58;  on  Frank- 
lin's knowledge  of  French,  122 ;  jealous  of 
Franklin,  453,  459-461 ;  life  with  Frank- 
lin at  Passy,  490-492,  501 
— ,  Mrs.  John,  description  of  Mme. 
Helvctius  by,  293 

,   Matthew,  allows  Franklin   use  of 


library,  93 

"  American  Magazine,"  236 

American  Philosophical  Society,  forma- 
tion ot',  355 

Andre,  Major  John,  theft  of  Franklin's 
books  by,  126 

Andrews,  Rev.  Jedidiah,  alarm  of,  .at 
influence  of  Hemphill,  142 

Armonica,  329 

Arnold,  Matthew,  failure  of,  to  appreciate 
Franklin's  Job,  251 

Association  Battery,  338,  471 

Austria,  Emperor  of,  496 

Bache,  Benjamin  Franklin,  501 ;  Frank- 
lin's affection  for,  35 ;  education  of,  36, 
118;  Franklin  establishes  as  printer,  36, 
219  ;  enmity  of,  toward  Washington,  37 

,    Richard,    marriage    of,    to    Sarah 

Franklin,  32  ;   Franklin's  aid  to,  33 

,  Sarah   Franklin,  275,    306,   508; 

birth  of,  29 ;  character  of,  30,  34,  273 ; 
marriage  of,  32,  273 ;  exertions  of,  during 
Revolution,  34  ;  resemblance  of,  to  Frank- 
lin, 34 

Balloon,  Franklin's  interest  in,  78 

Bancroft,  Edward,  70 

Banks,  Sir  Joseph,  382,  387 


Bard,  John,  70 

Bartram,  John,  387;  subscription  for,  353 

Baskerville,  John,  type-maker,  210 

Baynes,  John,  quoted  as  to  Franklin's 
French,  122 

Bible,  the,  inspiration  of,  149;  Franklin's 
revision  of  passages  from,  249-252 

Bond,  Phineas,  70 

,  Thomas,  70;  conceives  the  idea  of 

establishing  a  hospital  in  Philadelphia,  72 

Boston,  Franklin's  bequest  to,  87,  348 

Boston  "  Chronicle,"  Franklin's  ficti- 
tious supplement  to,  247 

Boston  "Gazette,"  James  Franklin  em- 
ployed to  print,  179 

Boufflers,  Mme.  de,  122 

Boulainvilliers,  Mile,  de,  303 

Braddock,  General,  Franklin's  aid  and 
advice  to,  3  ;g 

Bradford,  Andrew,  Franklin  supersedes 
as  public  printer,  194 ;  Franklin  writes 
for,  226;  Franklin's  gibes  at«,  230 

Bray,  Dr.,  Franklin  one  of  the  "  Associ- 
ates "of,  in 

Breintnal,  Joseph,  secretary  of  Library 
Company,  100 

Brillon,  M.,  76,  297,  301,  304,  307,  502 

Brillon,  Mme.,  teaches  Franklin  French, 
123:  Franklin's  intimacy  with,  297-303, 
304,  307,  332,  500 

Brownell,  George,  school  of,  87 

Burnet,  Governor  William,  Franklin 
courteously  noticed  by,  94 

"  Busy  Body,"  letters  of,  226 

Cadwalader,  Thomas,  70 
Cagliostro,  Count  Alessandro  di,  76 
Carroll,  John,   Franklin's   recognition   of 

kindness  of,  61,  162 
Chatham,  Lord,  71,  434,  450,  479 
Chess,   Franklin's  fondness  for,    120,    15^, 

299,  452,  497,  499,  500;   "Morals  of,"  255 

[  1 


INDEX 


Choiseul,  Due  de,  122,  490 

Christ  Church,  Philadelphia,  connec- 
tion of  Franklin  with,  146 

Churches,  Franklin's  attitude  toward,  150; 
gifts  to,  348 

Clergy,  Franklin's  attitude  toward  the,  134, 
139,  141,  162 

Golden,  Cadwallader,  387;  on  gravita- 
tion, 206 ;  conceives  idea  of  stereotyping, 
210 

Collinson,  Peter,  362,  387;  Franklin's  let- 
ters to,  on  electricity,  350,  370,  376 

Confederation,  Articles  of,  Franklin's, 
454 

Congress,  Continental,  Franklin's  rela- 
tions with,  14,  26,  28,  6t,  336,  347,  429, 
453,  460,  461 ;  Franklin's  designs  for,  324 

Convention,  Federal,  Si;  Franklin's  mo- 
tion in,  for  prayers,  167-169;  Franklin's 
last  public  service  in,  466 

Cook,  Captain  James,  Franklin's  service 
in  hehalf  of  expedition  under,  382 

Cooper,  Mr.,  443 

"  Craven  Street  Gazette,"  57,  59,  287 

Cutler,  Manasseh,  quoted,  43,  505  ;  de- 
scription of  Mrs.  Bache  by,  34,  508;  de- 
scription of  Franklin's  library  by,  127 

Darwin,  Erasmus,  estimate  of  Franklin 

by,  387 

Davenport,  Josiah,  14 
Deane,  Silas,  460 
Denham,  Mr.,  315 
Despenser,  Lord  Le,  158,  478,  revision 

of  Prayer-book  by,  159 ;  incident  at  house 

of,  242 

Didot,  printer,  210,  212 
"  Dogood,  Mrs.  Silence,  Letters   of," 

116,  119,  224,  263,  389 
Douglas,  Dr.  William,  351 
Dubourg,    Dr.  Jacques    Barbeu,    486, 

490;  Franklin's  letter  to,  on  air-baths,  44 

Ecton,  Northamptonshire,  the  home  of 
the  Franklins,  3 

Edinburgh,  University  of,  degree  from, 
118 

Electricity,  Franklin's  letters  on,  350,  370, 
376;  Franklin's  experiments  and  discov- 
eries in,  361-372,  376,  383,  397,  471 

Emmons,  Rev.  Nathanael,  appeal  from, 
on  behalf  of  town  of  Franklin,  127 

"  Ephemera,  The,"  255 

Farmers  General,  treaty  with,  retarded 
by  Franklin's  illness,  61 


Fisher,  Mr.,  anecdote  of  Deborah  Frank- 
lin related  by,  280 

Flaxman,  John,  325 

Fothergill,  Dr.  John,  65,  70,  370 

France,  Franklin  in,  14,  26,  39,  61,  63,  79, 
122,  218,  254,  289-304,  387,  429,  456-464, 
486-505 

Franklin,  Abiah  (Folger),  3,  6,  41,  131 
— ,  Ann,  first  wife  of  Josiah  Franklin,  3 

,  Ann,  13 

,  Benjamin,  Sr.,  92,  132,  178,  220; 

influence  of.  on  Franklin,  91,  133 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  ancestors  of,  i,  3, 
131,  220;  coat  of  arms  of,  2,  220;  family 
trades,  3,  4,  8,  n,  13,  14,  36,  177,  208,  219, 
275,  309 ;  birth  of,  4 ;  schooling  of,  4,  86, 
119,  308;  qualities  of,  4,  42,  57,  78,  84, 
130,  157,  162,  170,  172,  175,  193,  281,  308, 
322,  334,  362,  374,  379,  390,  442,  457,  482, 
505;  apprenticeships  of,  4,  5,  8,  94,  136, 
178,  184,  309,  311;  care  of  parents,  6;  fi- 
nancial aid  to  relatives,  6,  9,  11-19,  33, 
208,  219,  275;  monument  to  parents,  7; 
relations  with  brothers  and  sisters,  8,  9,  17, 
39,  347;  the  runaway  apprentice,  9,  38^ 
94,  139,  185,  269,  309;  will  of,  9,  13,  18, 
25,  28,  31,  36,  87,  219,  348;  "errata"  of, 
9,  141,  174,  184,  261,  270,  272;  nepotism 
of,  12-14,  20,  2i»  26,  28,  33,  34,  36,  337; 
connection  with  post-office,  12,  23,  334, 
336,  380,  410,  422,  442,  450,  453,  472;  as 
office-holder,  12,  23,  44,  61,  81,  219,  334, 
336»  339>  341,  342>  348,  418,  421-429,  442, 
453,  45°,  461,  464,  487;  in  France,  14,  26, 
39,  61,  63,  79,  122,  218,  219,  254,  289-304, 
387,  429,  456-464,  486-505  ;  handwriting 
of,  15,  56,  85,  87,  103,  104,  113,  124,  145, 
168,  172,  177,  191,  208,  217,  229,  262,  277, 
417;  printing-offices  of,  19,  193,  218;  mar- 
riage of,  19,  272;  relations  with  wife's 
family,  19,  20,  272;  an  indulgent  father, 
20,  31,  275 ;  alienation  from  William  Frank- 
lin, 23,  260;  political  animosities  excited 
by,  26,  36,  108,  253,  267,  306,  322,  423- 
427,  445,  447,  459,  473;  views  of,  on  in- 
oculation, 29;  in  Great  Britain,  39,  141, 
187,  249,  254,  275,  279,  286,  287,  351,  427- 
429,  442,  446,  474-486;  physique  of,  41, 
57,  65,  81,  267,  314,  489,  506;  theories  of 
hygiene,  42-47,  85,  314  ;  illnesses  of,  42, 
54,  55,  57,  59,  64,  65,  68,  76,  82-85,  129, 
T75,  3I5,  497,  501;  industry  of,  42,  188, 
190,  193,  224,  453 ;  American  journeys  of, 
45,  46,  61,  185,  285,  431,  434,  472;  econo- 
my of,  47,  49,  94,  272,  273 ;  diet  of,  47-55, 


512 


INDEX 


Franklin,  Benjamin  —  continued 
499>  5°2>  5O4I  the  "Water-American," 
52,311;  Madeira  the  favorite  drink  of, 
54 ;  attacks  of  gout,  54,  55,  59-64,  76,  78, 
82,  299,  398,  497 ;  rhymed  recipe  by,  55 ; 
indolence  of,  57,  58,  499 ;  corpulence  of, 
57,  59,  65;  estimate  of  self,  58,  91,  154, 
419,  441,  445,  453  ;  eyesight  of,  65  ;  views 
of,  on  medicine,  69,  72 ;  friends  of,  among 
medical  men,  70;  among  scientists,  74, 
351,  387,  486;  helps  to  expose  Mesmer, 
74;  ocean  voyages  of,  81,  309,  313,  382, 
468 ;  last  illness  of,  83-85,  289 ;  death  of, 
85;  love  of  reading,  88,  91,  93,  98,  101, 
127,  129,  136,  467;  private  studies  of,  88, 
94,  99,  101, 119, 122, 142,  222,  352-355,  361- 
385;  library  of,  91,  94,  99,  102,  125-130; 
magic  squares  and  circles,  96-98,  423 ;  the 
Junto,  99,  352,  355,  468;  system  of  read- 
ing recommended  by,  103 ;  on  education, 
106,  114,  116-120;  on  the  study  of  lan- 
guages, 107,  116,  118-120;  schools  aided 
by,  108-111,  348;  on  education  of  women, 
114,  263,  307;  a  spelling-reformer,  114; 
"Letters  of  Mrs.  Dogood,"  116,  119,  224, 
263,389;  degrees  given  to,  118;  fondness 
for  chess,  120,  152,  299,  452,  466,  497,  499, 
500;  imperfect  knowledge  of  French,  122; 
inventions  of,  129,  208,  327-330,  355,  358, 
368,  374;  baptism  of,  131;  destined  for 
ministry,  133 ;  attitude  of,  toward  clergy, 
134,  139,  141,  162  ;  religious  doubts  of,  136, 
141 ;  use  of  Sunday  by,  i->6,  142,  152,  224, 
501,  503 ;  relations  with  Quakers,  140,  is8, 
193;  friends  among  deists,  141;  "wicked 
tract"  of,  141,  143,  187,225;  relations  with 
Presbyterians,  141-146,  150;  liturgy  by, 
for  private  use,  142,  145,  170,  172;  on 
church  disputes,  146;  relations  with  Epis- 
copalians, 146,  150,  159;  test  oaths  taken 
by,  147,  149;  an  advocate  of  religious 
freedom,  149,  154,  157,  159;  religious  be- 
liefs of,  150,  155,  166,  171,  173-175*  262; 
friends  of,  among  clergy,  158  ;  on  heretics, 
167;  humor  of,  170,  239-250,  252,  256,296, 
388-417;  interest  in  printing,  177,  208,  212, 
218,  311,  315,  419;  partnerships  of,  192, 
202,  206-208  ;  as  public  printer,  195,  226, 
231,  421;  some  issues  of  the  press  of,  195, 
197,  204,  206 ;  edits  the  "  Pennsylvania 
Gazette,"  197,  201,  419;  ballads  by,  220, 
221 ;  criticized  by  his  father,  221 ;  imitates 
the  style  of  the  "  Spectator,"  222  ;  political 
writings  of,  226,  239,  240,  244,  247-249,  253, 
255,  261,  419,  422,  424,  446,  481;  letters 


Franklin,  Benjamin — continued 
of  the  "  Busy  Body,"  226 ;  as  a  news- 
monger, 227  ;  autobiography  of,  229,  259 ; 
literary  style  of,  237,  242,  240,  257,  261, 
389,  402,  410;  revision  of  passages  from 
Bible,  249-252  ;  epitaph  of,  262  ;  views  on 
marriage,  267,  281,  304 ;  happy  married 
life  of,  272-284  ;  women  friends  of,  284-307  ; 
popularity  of,  290,  400,  452,  464,  487,  496 ; 
views  of,  on  women,  306 ;  an  expert  swim- 
mer, 311 ;  experiments  with  kites,  312, 367, 
371;  book-shop,  316;  traffic  in  indentured 
servants  and  slaves,  318;  as  a  designer, 
324 ;  share  in  Revolution,  324,  342,  347, 
387,  408,  431,  456;  friends  among  artists, 
325;  stoves,  327,  355,  357-360;  taste  in 
music,  332;  Association  Battery,  338; 
views  on  war,  343;  wise  beneficence  of, 
346 ;  property  of,  347  ;  contributions  of, 
to  science,  350,  353-385 ;  "  Hell-fire  Club," 
351 ;  organizes  American  Philosophical 
Society,  355 ;  experiments  and  discoveries 
in  electricity,  361-372,  376,  383,  397,  471 ; 
lightning-rod,  368,  371-376;  honored  by 
Royal  Society,  370,  371,  383;  "  Poor  Rich- 
ard's Almanac,"  389,  400-407 ;  "  Speech  of 
Polly  Baker,"  410;  single  defeat  of,  at 
polls,  426;  efforts  of,  for  the  union  of  the 
colonies,  429,  454,  466 ;  efforts  of,  to  pre- 
vent separation  from  Great  Britain,  432- 
442,  450;  examination  before  House  of 
Commons,  441,  446,  456;  transmits  Hutch- 
inson  letters,  447;  no  speech-maker,  453; 
social  position  of,  455,  471,  473-505;  the 
diplomat,  456,  457-464,  482,  494 ;  an  or- 
ganizer of  first  masonic  society  in  America, 
471 ;  rules  of  conduct  in  society,  504. 

,   Deborah  (Read),   296;   marriages 

of,  19,  270,  272;  gifts  of,  to  Franklin,  51 ; 
illiteracy  of,  52,  276,  280;  a  member  of 
Christ  Church,  146;  Franklin  meets,  269; 
Franklin's  engagement  to,  270;  frugality 
of,  272-274 ;  Franklin's  affection  for,  274- 
276 ;  Franklin's  description  of,  275  ;  power 
of  attorney  given  to,  277 ;  relations  with 
William  Franklin,  278,  283 ;  fear  of  the 
sea,  279 ;  lack  of  social  standing,  280, 
471 ;  temper  of,  280,  281 ;  Franklin's  song 
in  praise  of,  281 ;  death  of,  283 

,  Elizabeth,  21 

,  Elizabeth  (Mrs.  William  Franklin), 

23.  35 

,  Francis  Folger,  29 

— ,  James,  5,  8,  137-139,  177,  183,  224 
,  James  ("Jemmy"),  9,  118,  209 


INDEX 


Franklin,  Jane   (Mrs.    Mecom),   6,    115, 
155,  290;  the  favorite  sister,  14-18 
,  John,  u,  12,  76 

,  Josiah,  3-6,  41,  50,  76,  88,  132,  177, 

186,  221,  309,  497 

,  Josiah  (2d),  8,  309 

— ,  Mary,  10 

,  Peter,  n,  12 


- — ,  Samuel,  311 

,  Sarah  (Mrs.  Davenport),  14 

,  Sarah.  See  BACHE,  SARAH  FRANK- 


,   William,  20,   35,  476;    education 

of,  20,  21,  118;  marriage  of,  23  ;  governor 
of  New  Jersey,  23  ;  alienation  from  father, 
23,  260 ;  imprisonment  of,  23 ;  Franklin's 
autobiography  designed  for,  259 ;  relations 
with  Deborah  Franklin,  278,  283;  homes 
of,  23,  278,  283 

-,  William  Temple,  63,  304 ;  Frank- 


lin's  affection   for,  25;  education  of,    25, 

118;   Franklin's  gifts  to,  28 
Franklin,  town  of,  Franklin's  gifts  to,  127 
Frederick  II.     See  PRUSSIA,  KING  OF 
French   language,    Franklin's    imperfect 

command  of,  122 

"General  Magazine,"  206,  236 

George  III,  433,  462;  share  of,  in  contro- 
versy over  the  use  of  lightning-rods,  375 

Georgia,  gift  to  Franklin  from,  347 ;  Frank- 
lin the  agent  of,  429 

Germans,  publications  for,  202,  203 ;  im- 
migration of,  426 

Godfrey,  Mrs.,  268,  400 

Godfrey,  Thomas,  400 

Gout,  Franklin's  attacks  o  ,  59-64,  76,  78, 
82,  299  ;  "  Dialogue  between  Franklin  and 
Madame  Gout,"  55,  126,  255,  398,  497 

Grafton,  Duke  of,  442 

Great  Britain,  Franklin  in,  39,  141,  187, 
249,  254,  275,  279,  286,  287,  351,  387,  427- 
429,  442,  446,  474-486;  Franklin's  pro- 
posed article  for  treaty  of  peace  with,  344 ; 
Franklin's  efforts  to  prevent  separation  of 
colonies  from,  432-442,  447,  450;  affection 
of  colonies  for,  433 

Greene,  Governor  William,  284 

Gulf  Stream,  Franklin  procures  map  of, 
380 

Guillotin,  70,  74,  365,  387 

Hall,  David,  Franklin's  partner,  202,  206, 

207,  347 
Hartley,  David,  462,  464 


Harvard  College,  116,  133;  degree  from, 

118 
Helv6tius,    Mme.,   302;     description   of, 

292-294  ;   Franklin's  admiration  for,  294 ; 

Franklin  rejected  by,  296 
Hemphill,  Rev.  Mr.,  Franklin's  defense 

of,  142 

Heretics,  167 
Hewson,  Mrs.  Mary  (Stevenson), 22, 287- 

289,  487;  "  Craven  Street  Gazette  "  written 

for,  287;  visits  Franklin  at  Passy,  289 

,  William,  70 

Hillsborough,  Earl  of,  480 
Houdetot,  Countess  d',  291 
Houdon,  324 
House,  George,  brings  first  patron  to  firm 

of  Franklin  and  Meredith,  193 
Howe,  General,  409 

,  Lord,  383,  452 

Hume,  David,  158,  257,  419,  477,  485 
Hunter,  William,  336 
Hutchinson,  Governor,  letters  of,  447 
Hygiene,  Franklin's  theories  of,  42-47,  85 

Indentured  servants,  318 

Independence,  Declaration  of,  Frank- 
lin's connection  with,  61,  255,  408 

Ingenhousz,  Dr.,  69,  70,  74,  81,  374 

Inoculation,  179,  351 ;  Franklin's  approval 
of,  29;  controversy  over,  137 

Izard,  Ralph,  460 

Jay,  John,  76,  460 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  quoted,  28,  75,  127, 
327,  387,  453,  457,  459,  505 ;  anecdotes  of 
Franklin  related  by,  69,  255,  496,  502 

Job,  Franklin's  paraphrase  of  passage  from, 
250 

Johnson,  President  Samuel,  472 

Jones,  John,  70;  account  of  Franklin's  last 
illness  by,  83 

,  John  Paul,  Franklin's  fictitious  let- 
ter from,  248 

Junto,  99,  352,  355,  468 

Kames,  Lord,  252,  260,  333,  476 
Keimer,  Samuel,  48,  185,  190,  196,  226 
Keith,  Sir  William,  deceptive  offer  of,  185 

Lafayette,  Marquis  de,  502 
La  Roche,  Abbe  de,  158 
Laurens,  Henry,  460 
Lavoisier,  75,  387 
Lee,  Arthur,  459,  460 
Le  Roy,  74 


5'4 


INDEX 


Library  Company  of  Philadelphia,  the, 

362 ;  origin  of,  90 ;  inscription  for  new 
building  of,  101 

Lightning-rod,  invention  of,  368;  contro- 
versy over  use  of,  371—376 

Little  Britain,  98,  350 

Locust-tree,  Franklin  plants,  at  Sanois, 
291 

Logan,  95 

London  Coffee-house,  484 

Lord's  Prayer,  Franklin's  revision  of  the, 
251 

Lyon,  141 

Magic  squares,  96,  423 

Mandeville,  Dr.,  141,  351 

Marbois,  praise  of  Mrs.  Bache  from,  34 

Marie   Antoinette,  487 ;    kindness  of,  to 

Franklin,  79 
Marly,  the  "  Philadelphia  Experiments  "  at, 

367.  371 
Marriage,  Franklin's  views  on,  267,  281, 

3°4 

Masonic  society,  Franklin  an  organizer 
of  first  American,  471 

Massachusetts,  459  ;  Franklin  the  agent 
of,  158,  429,  437,  449 

Mather,  Cotton,  158;  influence  of,  upon 
Franklin,  90;  controversy  with,  concern- 
ing inoculation,  137 

,  Increase,  controversy  with,  137 

Medmenham,  Monks  of,  iCo 

Meredith,  Hugh,  Franklin's  partnership 
with,  192,  197,  203,  204 

Mesmer,  378;   Franklin  helps  to  expose,  74 

Montgolfier,  Franklin's  interest  in  experi- 
ments of,  78 

Morellet,  Abbe,  158 

Music,  Franklin's  taste  in,  332 

Negroes,  Franklin's  traffic  in,  319 
Nepotism,'  Franklin's,   12—14,  20,   21,   26, 

28,  33-  34,  36,  337 

New  England,  Franklin  attached  to,  472 
"  New  England  Courant,"  52,  179-184; 

the  boy  Franklin  edits,  9,  139,  184,  225; 

controversy  over  inoculation  in,  137 
New  Jersey,  Franklin  the  agent  of,  429 
Nollet,  Abbe,  350 

Norris,  Miss,  epigram  attributed  to,  360 
North,  Lord,  443 

Old   South   Church,   Josiah   Franklin   a 

member  of,  131,  132 
Old  Testament,  149 
Oxford,  University  of,  degree  from,  118 


Paine,  Thomas,  158,  164 ;  Franklin's  ad- 
vice to,  as  to  the  publication  of  the  "Age 
of  Reason,"  164-167 

Palmer,  printing-house  of,  187 

"  Pamela,"  the  first  novel  printed  in 
America,  204,  205 

Papal  nuncio  at  Paris,  Franklin's  influ- 
ence with,  15),  162 

Paper  currency,  Franklin's  designs  for 
Continental,  219,  324,  349;  Franklin's 
pamphlet  on,  419 

Parker,  James,  208 

•Passy,  79,  218,  247.  289,  467,  499,  500,  503, 
505 

Passy,  Mile,  de,  303 

Pemberton,  Dr.,  351 

Penn,  Lady  Juliana,  Franklin  assists,  306 

Pennsylvania,  Franklin's  influence  in, 
423,  454 

,  University  of,  109 

Pennsylvania  Assembly,  21,  337;  Frank- 
lin's connection  with,  339,  421-423,  427, 
453,  464 

"  Pennsylvania  Fire-Place,"  355,  357 

"  Pennsylvania  Gazette,"  Franklin's  ad- 
vertisements in,  3,  ii,  19,  21,  29,  87,  100, 
102,  146,  201,  202,  316,  318 ;  establishing 
of,  196,  227,  419;  long  continuance  of,  202; 
reputation  of,  234 ;  first  attempt  to  illus- 
trate, 324  ;  Franklin's  scientific  articles  in, 
353;  humor  in,  390-396 

Pennsylvania  Hospital,  71,  72,  237,  471 

Persecution,  Franklin's  parable  against, 
252,  253 

Philadelphia,  Franklin's  arrivals  at,  34, 
139,  188,  269,  473  ;  offices  held  by  Frank- 
lin in,  44,  334,  342,  422,  423 ;  Franklin's 
homes  in,  126,  128,  268,  269,  273,  471,  506; 
Franklin's  work  for,  338,  342,  422  ;  Frank- 
lin's bequest  to,  348 

Philadelphia  Academy,  106-113, 116,  471 

"  Plain  Truth,"  324,  338,  422 

Poor  Richard,  quoted,  i,  7,  12,  19,  21,  47, 
49.  5°,  54,  59,  65,  68,  69,  85,  87,  105,  118, 
125,  130,  146,  167,  170,  177,  178,  185,  187, 
196,  253,  262,  267,  269,  307,  400,  404,  405, 
418.  443,  453,454,  467,  478,482,  500;  history 
of  American  humor  begins  with  publica- 
tion of,  389 ;  first  appearance  of,  400 ; 
popularity  of,  401,  403,  407;  "The  Way 
to  Wealth,"  405-407 

Post-office,  Franklin  appoints  relatives  to 
positions  in,  12,  14,  21,  33;  Franklin's 
connection  with,  12,  23,  334,  336,  380,  410, 
422,442,  450,  453,  472;  revenues  of,  336 


INDEX 


Prayer-  book,  revision  of  the,  160 

Prayers,  Franklin's  private,  142,  145,  170, 
172;  motion  for,  in  Federal  Convention, 
167-169 

Price,  Dr.,  167 

Priestley,  Joseph,  167,  385,  387 

Prince,  Rev.  Thomas,  sermon  of,  against 
the  use  of  lightning-rods,  373 

Pringle,  Sir  John,  66,  68-70,  375,  387 

Printing,  Franklin  learns  trade  of,  5,  8, 178, 
187,  215  ;  Franklin  establishes  proteges  in 
trade  of,  9,  16,  36,  114,  207,  219;  Frank- 
lin's interest  in,  177,  208,  212,  218,  311, 
315,  419;  on  china,  325 

Privateering,  Franklin's  condemnation  of, 
344 

Prussia,  King  of,  fictitious  edict  of,  240; 
treaty  with,  345 

Public  papers,  Franklin  avoids  drafting 
fcf,  255 

Quakers,  Franklin's  relations  with,  140, 158, 
193;  antislavery  sentiment  of,  319;  in- 
fluence of,  in  Pennsylvania,  337,  424 

Randolph,  Sarah,  Franklin's  aid  to,  304 

Ray,  Miss  Catherine,  Franklin's  corre- 
spondence with,  283-286 

Raynal,  Abbe,  theory  of,  refuted,  502 

Read,  "Jemmy,"  20 

,  Mr.,  269,  270 

,  Mrs.,  19,  270 

Religion,  freedom  of,  Franklin's  work 
for  cause  of,  149,  154,  157,  159 

Revolution,  the,  173,  216,  286;  Frank- 
lin's share  in,  324,  342,  347,  387,  408,  431, 
456 

Rights,  Declaration  of,  Franklin's  influ- 
ence in  framing  of,  149 

Rochefoucauld,  Due  de,  488 

Royal  Society,  370,  371,  374,  382, 383,  385 

Safety,  Committee  of,  61,  453 

St.    Andrews,    University   of,    degree 

from,  118 

St.  Asaph,  Bishop  of,  158,  259,  478 
Sanois,  499;  fete  at,  291 
Saunder,  Richard,  388,  400 
Shelburne,  Earl  of,  characterization   of 

Franklin  by,  482 
Shipley,     Bishop.       See     ST.     ASAPH, 

BISHOP  OF 
,    Georgiana,    Franklin's    affection 

for,  286 


Slavery,  204,  3?t 
Sloane,  Sir  Hans,  351 
Smith,  Adam,  submits  "Wealth  of  Na- 
tions" to  Franklin  for  criticism,  419 

,  Rev.  William,  108 

"Spectator,"  Franklin  imitates  style  of, 

222 

Spelling,   Franklin's  attempted  reform  of, 

114 

Stamp  Act,  433,  440,  445 
Stevenson,  Mary.     See  HEWSON,  MRS. 

MARY  (STEVENSON) 
Stormont,  Lord,  409,  490 
Strahan,     William,     quoted,    21,    279; 

Franklin's  strong  friendship  with,  29,  215- 

218,  257,  449 
Sunday,  Franklin's  use  of,  136,  142,  152. 

501,  503 

Tryon's  "Way  to  Health,"  48 
Twyford,  259,  478 

Valentinois,  Hotel  de,  501 
Veillard,  Le,  M.,  81,  302 
Vergennes,  76,  460,  492 

Walpole,  Horace,  249 

Walter,  John,  210 

^Var,  Franklin's  views  on,  343 

Washington,  George,  324,  329,  342,  453, 

459,  464;  refuses  Franklin's  applications, 

28,  36;  letter  to,  in 
Watson,  Dr.,  371 

Watts,  printing-office  of,  188,  215,  315,  328 
,    Isaac,    Franklin's    edition    of    his 

"Psalms  of  David,"  195 
Wedderburn,     Alexander,    attack     on 

Franklin  by,  448 
Wedgwood,  Josiah,  325 
West,  Benjamin,  325 
"Whistle,  The,"  255,  396 
Whiteneld,  Rev.  George,    quoted,  136; 

persuasive  eloquence  of,  in  ;    Franklin's 

friendship  with,  158,  171 
Williams,  Jonathan,  13,  290 
Wilson,  Benjamin,  374 

,  James,  81 

Wollaston,  William,  141 
Women,  Franklin's  views  on,  306 
Wright,  Dr.,  371 
— ,  Patience,  325 

Yale  College,  degree  from,  118 
"  Z,  Petition  of  Letter,"  116 


5,6 


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r\Lu  U 


3  2106  00059  6996 


